Inland Petroleum has announced it will take over Trangie's only service station and upgrade it, allaying fears among locals who thought they would be without access to fuel.
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Ampol Limited announced they wouldn't be renewing their lease, permanently shutting its doors to the Trangie service station on December 4.
Fear arose that the community could be left with no fuel service particularly in the lead-up to Christmas and harvest, forcing community members to travel a 70km round trip just to access fuel.
However the Daily Liberal can reveal independent and locally owned company Inland Petroleum is expected to take over the new lease and will be building a new service station.
The fuel and lubricant supplier, which has held a strong presence in the Central West since 1985, is working alongside the current lessee Ampol, and Transport for NSW and their contractor UGL Regional Linx who own the land, to ensure a smooth transition.
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Inland Petroleum Business Development Manager Harry Mooring explained the handover lease was imminent with development application approvals and land leases expected to be signed hopefully within the next fortnight.
"The idea of that is to keep the minimal amount of time the town doesn't have access to fuel," he said.
"Especially going into this time of year, we've got environmental issues around us, we're leading into one of the happiest times of the year being Christmas and summer, and we've got the busiest time of the year being harvest and things like that, so to have no access to fuel is not only a logistical nightmare, but a social nightmare."
While a handover date isn't yet confirmed, he explained there had been delay due to due diligence into what needed to be fixed and remediated before they could take over.
"We don't want to take care of a site that has issues and could be potential hazards in the future, and obviously that company leaving doesn't want to have that liability on them later in the piece," he said.
"That has made it a slow process, but I do believe the DA for demolition, remedifications and everything will be assessed this week."
Mr Mooring explained Inland Petroleum had signed on for an extended lease from Transport for NSW, and that they would be redeveloping the site to create a new station. However in the meantime they were aiming to have a temporary facility running for about 16 to 18 months.
"Ideally we should have no more than six to eight months of construction or demolition and remediation of soils and things like that to make sure we're ticking all the boxes," he said. "But we have allowed that time, with all the rain and other issues we've been having over the last six months."
Mr Mooring said they were also hoping to open a small shop for people passing through in-between meal times.
"We want to work with other stakeholders in the town, so we'll fill the gaps of the 4pm in the afternoon before dinner service, but after lunch service for people that want to have a wrap or small foods and bags of chips as they're filling up,' he said.
"So we are going to offer that in a very small site next to the tanks, and there's going to be someone there."
When Ampol made their announcement to close, concern came for the five staff members who would be put out of a job in the lead-up to Christmas.
However Mr Mooring said in the interim they were working at employing the maximum amount of people they could to keep the temporary site running.
"Ideally we'd love to employ everyone we could so no one is left behind in the transition of this handover. But what we're going to do is employ the maximum amount of people we can and run them to their best needs and abilities to keep people employed," he said.
"There's going to be a major station erected and then we can re-employ these people. In the meantime we're trying to keep as many people employed so that's our target."
Inland Petroleum's decision to invest into the region wasn't difficult, with Mr Mooring explaining it made sense to deliver to communities they were already dealing with.
"There's no need to go far afield when we can do what we do close to home," he said.
"It aligns with our values, it aligns with our people, our employees, and our customers.
"The amount of people we deal with and are part of our little community of Inland Petroleum that we have at Trangie, to be able to put our service in the town ... they're already in our field and customer area, and we have those connections and we're supporting the people that really support us."
However, Mr Mooring said key in helping progress the changeover was the Narromine Shire Council, in particular mayor Craig Davies, who he said had been "absolutely detrimental" to moving and escalating the situation along.
"He's been working very closely with us, he's done an excellent job. He's been nothing but a godsend for all the issues we've had along the line with major stakeholders across all of NSW, he really has been a formidable friend," Mr Mooring said.