Hawkesbury Council seeks comprehensive traffic study

Independent councillor Peter Reynolds brought a Notice of motion to Council’s October 25 meeting to start discussions with Dominic Perrottet and Susan Templeman on the issue, while also creating a sub-committee to draw up briefs to put out to tender.

Cr Reynolds said it would be an important document for future decisions around traffic management.

“The reason for a comprehensive traffic study is so we have hard data and numbers to take to the state government to develop a comprehensive traffic plan that we can take to the government based on fact, not opinion,” he said.

Cr Reynolds said it was unclear where and how traffic got around the Hawkesbury, because nothing like this had ever been done before.

“Traffic that is the responsibility of the state government is being forced onto our roads because of our lack of infrastructure,” he said.

“It will cost some money [to do the study], but the point is that we can’t afford not to do it. The cost of upkeep on local roads is incredibly expensive.”

Deputy Mayor Barry Calvert said he welcomed the idea, and said it would like to proactive, rather than reactive, decision making.

Independent councillor Paul Rasmussen said he thought it was clear an additional two bridges were needed to cross the Hawkesbury River.

“Whatever we do has to be underpinned by metrics and science,” he said.