Hyde/Bridge St works

While the upgrade that will formalise left and right turning lanes coming out of Bridge St onto Hyde St may go some way towards addressing traffic blockages and pedestrian danger, Council’s Deputy General Manager Operations Matt Fanning admits that he would have preferred a different solution.

“I would have liked a roundabout there,” he said. “I looked into having an oval-shaped one. But the right-turn by heavy vehicles would be too difficult. There simply isn’t the width required.”

A set of traffic lights was not an option either – too expensive to install and maintain, Matt said.

However, he said widening Bridge St on the western side of the park would help ease the traffic congestion by allowing two queues to start forming further down the hill, where the 50km/hr sign is.

And moving the Hyde St pedestrian crossing further away from the problem intersection to the eastern end of the Digger’s Tavern will also help, he said, because traffic waiting to turn won’t bank up as much.

A pedestrian refuge island to be installed on Bridge St will mean that people crossing won’t have to dodge three lanes of traffic.

The new alignment of Bridge St means a slight encroachment onto Maam Gaduying Park.

Several trees will go on the western side, including one of the smaller camphor laurels, two pines and a she-oak. 

On the southern side of the park,  where the entrance faces the current pedestrian crossing, there are two more trees marked for removal due to poor health.

One is a jacarandah being strangled by a fig, but Matt said it will be allowed to stay until the fig is better established.

Across from it is a white cypress in poor condition that will be removed.

The new garden bed that will be established on the Post Office corner has provoked outcry online and in the Courier-Sun’s letters pages due to the supposed loss of short-term parking, but Matt said one of the spaces would remain and the other would lose 50cm.

He also pointed out that there are seven parking spaces reserved for customers in the Post Office car park.

Three new parking spaces will be created on the southern side of the park, across from the Memorial Hall, and a new drop-off zone will be placed directly in front of the hall.

The work is expected to be complete by early July.

For more details, including a video that council will be uploading soon, see https://create.bellingen.nsw.gov.au/

May 23

This story failed to mention that a large camphor laurel on the southwest corner of Maam Gaduying Park would be removed for the Hyde St/Bridge St upgrade. 

I misunderstood the information given to me and thought only smaller trees or trees in poor health were going. I apologise for this mistake. 

Notwithstanding the controversy surrounding members of its species, I would like to note that it was a beautiful old tree with a generous canopy that gave our meeting place park much-needed shade and cool clean air, and I am sorry for its loss.

           - JANENE CAREY