Trucks lining up to unload at Cargill’s Narrabri West plant have drawn complaints from residents and the issue has several times been on the agenda in Narrabri Shire Council meetings.
Deputy mayor Cr Cathy Redding has previously raised the issue in council on behalf of local residents.
“There were to be ‘no parking’ signs installed, but council decided against that to see if the trucks could be placed elsewhere,” Cr Redding said.
“There was discussion about creating a large hard stand somewhere off Yarrie Lake Road for truck parking.
“I received complaints on Thursday because there were more than usual trucks parked right along Mooloobar street.
“If two trucks are passing, as often happens, and there is a row parked along the street, there is very little room.
“The issue is not before the council at the moment, but I will raise it again and options may be presented” Cr Redding added.
A solution may lie in a widened Mooloobar Street, a caller to The Courier suggested.
“We sympathise, the trucks have to line up to deliver, but have
nowhere else to park,” the resident who phoned The Courier said. “This is an important business as well.”
The last few days saw trucks parked along the side of Mooloobar Street.
“They are right off the main carriageway, as far as they can be,” the West caller said.
“An answer is to widen and seal the section from the basketball courts down to the former Wukawa Street corner to give them somewhere to line up.
“At the moment, the trucks are gradually eroding the edges of the bitumen, which is too narrow anyway.
“In fact, I wonder if the bitumen is a legal width nowadays.
“If it was widened and sealed out to the bicycle track maybe that would satisfy everyone.
“There are no line markings along this road section either” the caller said, adding that the consensus was that widening the seal along the Mooloobar Street could provide an answer.
“The council needs to widen Mooloobar Street where the kerb and guttering ends, down to the basketball courts.
“But residents think the whole section of Mooloobar Street needs to be reconstructed,” he said.
“And it looks like the culvert under Mooloobar Street near the VRA station near Burigal Street is collapsing as well.
“You can feel the dip as you drive over it,” he claimed.