Once again Singleton residents are raising concerns about a development application, for the now operating service station, at the corner of the New England Highway and Bridgman Road, Dunolly.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
This time around the operators wish to alter approved plans to include a four bay carwash on the site which during its long original approval process was subject to strong community opposition which led to Singleton Council refusing the Development Application(DA) on April 10, 2017 on the basis of flooding; inconsistencies with zone objectives; traffic impacts; and because the project was inconsistent with the Community Strategic Plan (CSP).
A conciliation hearing in February 2018 in the NSW Land and Environment Court ultimately led to the service station, take-away food and drink premises and two retail outlets gaining approval. Now the DA before Council wants to reduce the size of the retail outlets and remove a children's' playground to make way for the carwash. The carwash facility is a different land use activity with different impacts than the 'two shops' previously approved.
Residents are very concerned about the proposal to significantly change an existing approval due to traffic issues, water management and noise and pollution impacts.
Although the letter attached to the DA says the changes for the proposal reduce the size and location of the fast food facility in fact the application involves replacing two previously approved shops with a 'carwash facility', which is not simply a 'decrease in size'. Residents want to know whether the carwash will operate 24 hours/day and if so this would have impacts on the surrounding residents and landholders.
Another major issue for residents is the traffic impacts as they have told the Singleton Argus many have witnessed 'near misses' misses' where drivers exiting the site onto Bridgman Rd have almost collided with pedestrians and cyclists on the cycle path going past. Additional measures must be taken to slow down and warn exiting drivers of pedestrians and cyclists.