Bathurst is currently home to just one tourist park – the Big 4 caravan park on the Sydney Road at Kelso – and Bathurst Regional Council believes there is a significant gap in the local accommodation market.

Councillors have approved a proposal to consider setting aside between $6 million and $7 million in the 2016-17 budget towards the development of a new family tourist park, and council has already earmarked a site on council-owned land off College Road.

The proposal was first presented to a council working party in July and mayor Gary Rush said it warranted further investigation.

While stressing plans were in the very early stages, Cr Rush said the site in mind could provide much-needed family accommodation close to Mount Panorama, the Bathurst Harness Racing Club, Bathurst BMX Track and proposed Velocity Park second circuit development.

“We’re acting on what we perceive to be a need for additional accommodation of that type in Bathurst,” Cr Rush said.

“We’re in the very early stages of exploring that and council must determine whether or not to allocate funds in next year’s budget.

“In the interim, though, we will explore what that means in terms of dollars and cents and consider options with regard to looking at how such a tourist park might operate and who could potentially operate it.”

Cr Rush said he sensed the least favoured option would be for council to build and operate the tourist park itself.

Instead, he suspected the development would go ahead on a similar model to the Bathurst Aquatic Centre where council built the facility before tendering out the management of the facility to a third party.