Access to Cessnock Correctional Centre will remain at Lindsay Street after the NSW Department of Corrections withdrew its offer to build a new access road to the complex.
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It comes after Cessnock City Council requested several conditions be met before it would agree to endorse the State Government's preferred option - a new road connecting to the prison via the southern end of Occident Street, Nulkaba (known as Option 3A).
In a letter to council's general manager Lotta Jackson, Corrections Minister Anthony Roberts said these demands were "simply not acceptable and are not feasible for Corrections to comply with".
The State Government had agreed to support and fund construction of this new access road - which would also use a portion of Department of Health land and private land - but needed council's endorsement before proceeding with planning and design work (as the project would require voluntary acquisition, subdivision and rezoning).
Cessnock City Council requested several conditions at its March 18 meeting, including mitigation measures to ensure the new access road was isolated from the local road network and minimised traffic on council-maintained roads; security fencing and screening along the route, and providing safe access where the route joins the State Road Network.
This criteria was also part of a resolution of council's February 19 meeting, which asked general manager Lotta Jackson to engage with Corrections to discuss an alternative route put forward by the Nulkaba residents (who feared their neighbourhood may become subject to rat-runs if the new entry was built off Occident Street with no mitigation measures).
The outcome of Ms Jackson's meeting with Corrections on March 2 was to "support or not support 3A", an option Mr Roberts said Corrections came to after "extensive investigations".
"To reaffirm the position of government and to explain the difficulties with the resolutions of council's meeting on 19 February, a representative of Corrections met with you (the general manager) to explain why Option 3A was the only remaining option available to government and why council's support was necessary so that planning and design work could begin," Mr Roberts said in his letter to Ms Jackson.
"Regrettably, the resolution of council at its next meeting on 18 March 2020 continued to list a number of demands, including a resolution for me to repeat the letter already supplied to Council by me in January this year.
"Further to this, items 6 and 7 of Council Resolution 1158 included the same repetitive conditions of 19 February with an additional 'accept all or none' clause.
"Corrections simply cannot meet those conditions prior to any planning and design work.
"In light of this resolution and the reluctance of Cessnock City Council to negotiate in a reasonable manner, despite considerable effort and expenditure by Corrections who, in good faith, since 15 May 2019, have spent a considerable amount of time trying to find an acceptable outcome, Corrections will not be expending any further time or resources on this matter.
"Corrections has no option but to formally withdraw its offer of 3A and will continue accessing the facility via Lindsay Street."
Cessnock mayor Bob Pynsent said the minister's response was "extremely disappointing".
"Ratepayers should not have to maintain the road network for a state facility as they have done for the last 30 years," Cr Pynsent said.
"Council worked collaboratively with the Nulkaba community to ensure minimal disruption to the traffic network with a school and preschool nearby."
Council plans to request a meeting with the Minister. This will be considered by councillors at an upcoming council meeting (the next of which is scheduled for April 15).
Cessnock MP Clayton Barr said he was "deeply saddened and incredibly frustrated" by the outcome.
"I am sad for the community at large - this is a bad result on many fronts," he said.
"I am frustrated because I know how much work I, and the Minister's office, have done to get a new entry/exit road offer on the table.
"People often say that they are sick of politicians arguing all the time and 'why don't you just work together on issues'.
"In this instance we saw the very best of what politics can be; a local Labor MP working with a Liberal minister, and in the end this united bi-partisan front still wasn't embraced by council.
"I am sincerely disappointed for the hundreds of homes and residential front doors that have been putting up with jail traffic for the past 40 years and will now be putting up with it for the next 40 years.
"The option that was on the table for a new entry/exit did not go past a single front door.
"The ball has well and truly been dropped and fumbled, and there is no way back now."
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