Wednesday July 3, 2024
Volume 39 No. 23
$2 inc. GST
The Cobar Weekly Police pull over drunk driver with drugs Pg 3
Posthumous awards for Dustbowl Fuel Burners Pg3
Funding for water in State Budget is old money Pg 4
Cr Payne walks out of meeting in disgust Cobar Shire Councillor Julie Payne budget which wasn’t allowed for but we went to free camping at the Newey, her fellow counwalked out of last week’s Ordinary Council ahead and we made this available,” she said. cillors may have queried why she was now Meeting in disgust and said she’s now “Would this not indicate we have plenty of deciding to upset the status quo and bring the washed her hands of Council and won’t be free camping available and do we really need matter before Council again. taking part in any further Council meetings to include the Newey as a free camping op- “I want it resolved,” Cr Payne told The Coor events. tion?” bar Weekly. Cr Payne left 20 minutes into last Thurs- Cr Payne said as she’s been openly opposed Continued Page 2. day’s meeting after having her say on the first agenda item, a Notice of Motion she’d put forward calling on her fellow councillors to support no camping at the Newey. She said given that it had been seven years since the original motion of Council (dated July 27, 2017 that Council and the community support free camping at the Newey and create a Plan of Management), had been passed and had not yet been acted upon, that Council should move forward and declare the Newey Reserve as a no camping area. The Newey has not been open for free camping since March 2018 after Council received a directive from the NSW Department of Industry—Crown Lands and Water to close the area to free campers. Cr Payne said circumstances surrounding the original motion of 2017 to allow free camping have changed greatly in the past seven years. “At the time there were no other options available for free camping in close proximity to the town,” Cr Payne told the meeting. “But during the last seven years, Cobar’s been more than generous with multiple options for free camping. “Some of these options include Cornish Rest, RSL, the Old Res, Glenhope and recently a new area adjacent to the Heritage Park (which incidentally I noticed hasn’t been utilised by Cr Julie Payne (at centre, with Cr Kate Winders at forefront and Cr Janine Lea-Barrett any free campers yet), is an already large area and Cr Bob Sinclair, obscured, on her right) speaking in support of her motion to at a cost to Council of $130,000 out of the Thursday’s Ordinary Council Meeting regarding banning free camping at the Newey.