More than 10,000 signatures have been penned in favour of a Dubbo bypass and the raising of Troy Bridge, as opposed to the state government's $220 million River Street Bridge proposal.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Petition organiser Karina McLachlan said they were carefully going through signatures to ensure addresses and signatures matched and double ups were accounted for.
"We don't want to be open to any accusations that we've just made people up," she told the Daily Liberal.
"So we're just going over to be absolutely sure, that when they go through it with a fine tooth comb that we've definitely got 10,000 and they won't send it back."
READ ALSO:
Now that the petition has reached more than 10,000 it can be taken to the NSW Parliament where it can be debated.
"Petitions doesn't necessarily force the government to change their policy, but what it does show is because of the hard work and all of the people who have signed it, it shows them that popular opinion in the electorate and for any users of the Newell Highway is that they want a raised bridge at Troy, and they want a ring road, they don't want [the River Street bridge]," Ms McLachlan said.
"It isn't a Dubbo issue only, we've recognised that from the beginning."
The group have been lobbying against the NSW government's plans to build the River Street bridge to deal with flooding and traffic congestion in Dubbo.
The group of volunteers behind the petition have been calling for Transport for NSW to review alternate bypass routes to deal with these issues.
The outbreak of COVID-19 forced the paper petition to take a break, however the group are back continuing to collect more signatures.
Ms McLachlan credited the work of the volunteers, and said paper petitioning was the best way to talk face-to-face with people about the issues.
"We didn't realise how much work a paper petition would be, but I think it was the way to go, because we got to speak to people," she said.
"We just have our tables, we have our leaflets, our Facebook page and we're running on volunteers.
"The benefit of this campaign, which is very unique, is there's so many different groups who are in favour of raising Troy Bridge and the bypass, that might be in complete opposition when it comes to any policy.
"Where do you have a campaign where the local Aboriginal people are on the same side as the truckies, on the same side as a majority of businesses and where all people, regardless of weather you're political or non-political are on the same page.
"The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers, the Independents, Greens, Labor, they're all on the same page.
"We've also got the council with us, so we felt because of that we have a strong campaign, it wasn't just one group of vested interests."