Proposed changes to a dangerous intersection drew fierce criticism at council’s final meeting for the year.
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Nine visibly weary councillors met to weigh in on a number of issues on Monday night, but it was a few lines buried in the traffic committee’s meeting minutes that prompted the strongest reaction.
According to the minutes of the November 9 committee meeting, Councillor Dan Hayes and Wagga police sergeant Don Qvist recommended replacing the stop sign at the intersection of Pine Gully Road and Old Narrandera Road with a give way sign.
Deputy mayor Dallas Tout, a finance manager at Charles Sturt University, jumped on the detail and asked Cr Hayes to explain why the stop sign should be removed.
“There have been some changes to the traffic calming techniques out there, the angle (of the intersection) has been straightened off,” Cr Hayes said. “Most people probably don’t stop there with the fixing of the angle (you can) safely say the stop sign is no longer required and a give way would be more beneficial.”
Cr Tout thanked Cr Hayes, but said he “vehemently disagreed”.
“I work out that way, I go that way regularly and I went out there again this morning,” he said.
“It’s still a very dangerous intersection, university students come down there, there’s a new crop of them every year… the risk is far too great to remove the stop sign.
“If they don’t stop, let’s get some police out there, because having people habitually ignore traffic signals is not a reason to make things easier, it should be a reason to make it harder.”
The idea was fiercely criticised by Cr Paul Funnell, who became quite heated as he agreed with Cr Tout.
“I’m dead set against this… I can’t count on both hands, weekly, how many near misses there are and to have a report come back like this, you will get my ire up,” Cr Funnell said. “I have questioned the capacity of the traffic committee in the past and I question it again, to think you can put this to a give way sign and think it’s safe… people still come out and they look you in the eye and they pull out.”
In response to Cr Funnell, Cr Hayes pointed out the traffic committee was made up of experts and a representative from police as well.
Councillors Braid, Funnell, Kendall, Koschel, Pascoe and Tout ultimately voted not to remove the stop sign.