Environmentalists await a response after submitting 'Save Regand Park' petition

A group of concerned residents descended upon Dubbo Regional Council [DRC] on Friday, September 9 to hand over their petition but mayor Mathew Dickerson was nowhere to be found.

Petition creator and Dubbo Environment Group's Margaret McDonald said she wasn't surprised he didn't make an appearance.

"We knew the mayor was not going to be there," she said.

Mayor Dickerson had sent the DRC policy on petitions to Ms McDonald, which explained for a hard copy it had to come in an envelope marked for the Chief Executive Officer.

"Nothing in that policy says that a mayor or representative isn't allowed to accept the community petition," she said.

"We can't see that accepting a petition is him expressing an opinion about the petition, it's just him doing his job which is to listen to the community."

The petition asks for a policy which was rescinded in 2021; that no infrastructure is to be built on Regand Park, to be reinstated.

With more than 800 signatures, Ms McDonald said doing the petition has worked to make the community more aware of what was happening at council and what St John's JRLFC are after.

"They haven't backed down and are loudly saying Regand Park is where they want to go," she said.

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The reason Ms McDonald handed in the petition now is because she wants to raise more awareness and influence resident's opinions.

Since the petition has more than 25 signatures, it will go onto the agenda at DRC's ordinary council meeting on September 22.

"I imagine there will be a discussion about it and they can at least let us know if they reject that request," she said.

The ordinary meeting will give Ms McDonald an insight into how the councillors stand on the issue.

"We will see more clearly how they stand instead of councillors and the mayor saying they don't see what there is to save Regand Park from," she said.

"We will see if they are in favour of keeping the current policy so they can proceed with infrastructure, that's what this will say to us."

The next step for the group would be to keep an eye on consultation survey's, and put there effort into another petition to 'Save Dubbo's Green Spaces'.