A former Queanbeyan city councillor says the council was close to considering whether to proceed or not with the controversial EDE road before it was sacked last May and he believes the vote would have been close to knocking the project on the head.
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Councils across NSW including the Queanbeyan City Council and Palerang Council were sacked in May last year as part of the State Government's amalgamation plans.
Former Queanbeyan mayor Tim Overall was appointed administrator of the newly-formed Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council until local government elections in September.
Mr Overall, on a three-person panel considered the road proposal and by June last year had approved the new $86 million Ellerton Drive Extension. Mr Overall alone decided to commit $36 million in ratepayer funds, which the council says will be covered by developer contributions from Tralee and Googong. The state and federal governments are each funding $25 million.
Former Queanbeyan City councillor Kenrick Winchester said he believed had the former city council had a chance to have the final vote on the future of the road, it might have been knocked back.
"I guarantee it would have been close," he said.
Mr Winchester said he would have been one of the councillors to vote against the road.
"Because you don't need it," he said.
"To divert traffic from the main street through the suburbs is not a solution. The town deserves better. But we've had the decision rammed down our throats."
Critics say the road should not proceed until it is considered after the new council is elected.
The 4.6km road provides an alternative route around the Central Business District and connects east and west Queanbeyan to the new southern population growth areas.
Tree-felling along the route started this week.
The Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council maintains the road has been "on the maps" since the 1970s and it should come as no surprise that it is proceeding.
The road is billed as an alternate route for heavy vehicles and a way to ease congestion as Queanbeyan continues to grow. Googong, in the south of Queanbeyan, has 400 occupied homes.
In 10 to 15 years, the council expects that will rise to 5500 homes – meaning an additional 15,000 residents within the Queanbeyan area.
"The Ellerton Drive Extension will play a major role in ensuring the new residents, along with our current residents, can travel to their destination without unacceptable delays," the council says.
The federal Environment Department confirmed its approval of the road this week was to allow limited clearing until January 31 "to protect animals living in the hollow trees and Rosenberg Goanna young found in termite mounds".
"No construction or additional clearing is permitted until submission and approval of a Biodiversity Offset Management Plan to compensate for impacts on White Box Grassy Woodland and the Hoary Sunray that are listed under the EPBC Act," a statement from the department read.
Developer Peet Limited, formerly CIC Australia, is proposing to build about 300 houses behind Greenleigh but the future of the Jumping Creek subdivision relies on the EDE being built.
A spokeswoman for Peet Limited on Friday said there was no set timeline on when a development application for the proposed Jumping Creek housing project would be submitted.
Queanbeyan Conservation Alliance spokeswoman Katrina Willis maintained the road was being built to facilitate the proposed housing estate at the cost of environmental destruction.
She suggested there were other transport alternatives including upgrading 13 intersections that would help to ease congestion.
"The council's conceded [the EDE] will keep very little heavy vehicles out of the main street," she said.
Federal Eden-Monaro MP Dr Mike Kelly, whose house is on the route and who is opposed to the road, said if further construction could not proceed immediately, there was no reason why consideration of the multi-million-dollar link could not be delayed until after the new council was installed.
"All I am asking is that the community be allowed to decide this issue,"Dr Kelly said. "I am happy to commit to supporting whatever it is the do so decide."
