Dubbo Regional Council is undertaking a survey to gauge the public’s response to the proposed River Street bridge.

The River Street option was announced in June 2017. The goal of the bridge was to reduce congestion and provide an alternate route to the LH Ford during a flood when the Emile Serisier Bridge cannot be accessed.

Cr Greg Mohr said there wasn’t a week that went by that a councillor was contacted by someone who wanted to talk about the bridge.

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While Cr Mohr supports a ring road rather than the River Street bridge, he said he would stick to the decision made by the community.

“If we got it wrong I’m quite happy to say we got it wrong. If it goes the other way we expect the RMS to respect the community’s decision,” he said.

The councillor, who is also council's representative on the region’s traffic committee, said he didn’t want to see large trucks have to move through West Dubbo on the Newell Highway.

“This new River Street Bridge plan does nothing to reduce traffic numbers in West Dubbo,” Cr Mohr said. 

“Constructing a River Street bridge means it will be generations away before the government will fund a ring road.  That’s not good enough for truckies and West Dubbo residents.”

He said the $150 million allocated for the bridge – which included $1 million in community consultation to find the preferred option – was nothing to sneeze at when it was taxpayers money from “hardworking mums and dads”.

As the survey was sent out with the rates notice, Cr Mohr said the results wouldn’t be finalised until the rates were all paid. He expected the outcome to be announced before the end of the year.

Cr Mohr said the result of the River Street bridge survey would also show how many responses were received from council.