A Mayoral Minute introduced at the council meeting on Monday night called for a re-commitment to the former Dubbo City Council’s road transportation strategy. The strategy included a Newell Highway ring road which tied in with a third bridge.

Councillor Vicki Etheridge said she feared if the third bridge was constructed at River Street there wouldn’t been a chance to establish a ring road.

“I’m saying if we don’t stop this River Street Bridge now, it won’t be in my lifetime before we get the option that this community so desperately needs,” Ms Etheridge said.

“We need it for economic growth. At the moment the trucks are all turning off at Tomingley, going around through Narromine and coming out at Eumungerie so we’re missing all that passing trade from the truck drivers pulling into service stations and buying their meals, their fuel, their coffees.”

Dubbo Regional mayor Ben Shields said the road would take traffic from near Taronga Western Plains Zoo to the airport and then Purvis Lane.

In the Dubbo Road Road Transportation Strategy to 2045 from 2012, Cr Shields said there was a traffic freight way that diverted the Newell Highway to the west of Dubbo with a high level bridge around Purvis Lane and Troy Junction.

“This ring road should be the first priority for transport funding in Dubbo,” Cr Shields said.

“It’s a no-brainer that we do need a third bridge around Dubbo. It’s a no-brainer that this bridge needs to be high and flood proof but in my mind its also a no-brainer that Whylandra Street in West Dubbo is also a problem.”

Cr Etheridge said the NSW government was going to spent $140 million on the River Street Bridge, but she would prefer they spend $200 million on the Troy Junction bridge option.

“In the grand scheme of things, what is that when you’re giving the community what they need?”

The councillor said she was prepared to start a petition on the issue. She would need 10,000 signatures for it to be taken to parliament.

“It’s so frustrating that I feel as a community we’re not being listening to.Nearly every second person I talk to they bring the conversation around to the bypass – when are we going to get the bypass? I get that from nearly every second person I speak to,” she said.

“Everybody knows the benefits to the community from doing the bypass far outweigh the River Street option.”

Councillors voted in unanimous support for the commitment to the former traffic strategy.