Bit of news for the guys who like to use the road that comes of the Bells Line Of Road at Clarence(adjacent to the Zig Zag railway station). See below:
Thursday, 11 January 2007
Now a road closure threat at Clarence
Len Ashworth
Late last year
Lithgow Council encountered something of a 'first' in challenges to its decision making when a rural landholder at Rydal threatened to close the Rydal-
Hampton Road because of what he saw as unresolved liability issues where the public road traversed a portion of his land.
It was an issue that dated back many decades to when the old Blaxland Shire Council re-aligned the road but apparently never formalised acquisition.
That closure threat resulted in Council seeking its own legal advice to prevent the closure and at year's end the negotiations on the issue were continuing.
But now the Council is facing more of the same in a totally different location - in the fringes of the
Newnes State Forest at Clarence where a property owner has erected signs recently threatening to blockade the road.
At issue is a length of poorly maintained gravel road that passes at the rear of the Zig Zag Railway property and the old Clarence Sawmill.
And the problem is the same as that at Rydal with property owners concerned at liability issues.
Council has been aware of the issue at Clarence for some time but it appears to be only now coming to a head.
While the road carries a good deal of traffic - particularly what residents describe as swarms of trail bikers and off road vehicles - the Council admits it has no legal status.
It became an issue at a meeting of Council prior to Christmas when a development application was received for the creation of a ‘
heritage sawmill' on the site of the existing Clarence Sawmill.
At that time the sawmill applicant raised concerns about the status of the road.
Council's Group Manager of Regional
Services, Andrew Muir, said that this section of the
Newnes Forest Road provides access to a number of properties.
But, he said, investigations have revealed that the road traverses both private and State Government land and ‘has no legal status as a public road'.
It has never been maintained by Council.
The meeting was told that should Council decide to acquire the length of road there would be significant costs involved including legal fees and ongoing maintenance.
Mr Muir said that Council was under no legal obligation to take on responsibility for the roads and he recommended that no action be taken.
This was adopted without comment by Council but Council did offer to ‘project manage' any work undertaken by the land owner at his full cost.
Now comes the threat of closure which would force all traffic onto the only other route into the popular
Newnes Plateau area, the State
Mine Gully-Dobbs Drift road.
While the Zig Zag Railway is not involved in the closure threat the railway's management agrees with the liability concerns that are being raised.
CEO Michael
Forbes said that the road in question is actually part of the old railway formation linking Clarence to the shale oil industry in the
Wolgan Valley through the Glowworm Tunnels and with no connection to Zig Zag.
He said the Zig Zag Railway already pays out ‘a fortune' in public liability insurance and does not like being exposed to risk issues because of a road that passes over part of its land and that, like the Rydal situation, had never been formalised.
"If someone has an accident we face the risk of liability