Barnaby Joyce told a televised public forum last night that one of his achievements is the “Scone by-pass”.
He is wrong on three counts.
1. Joyce does not represent Scone, although he aspires to
2. In the 2012-13 Budget I secured $45 million to construct an overpass over the town’s dangerous level railway crossing, not a by-pass
3. The by-pass is tomorrow’s debate and battle, we need to build an overpass now
For two years the Abbott/Turnbull Government and the NSW Government have avoided doing anything in Scone by promoting a false debate about whether we build an overpass or a by-pass.
The truth is we may need both but a by-pass will not fix the level railway crossing problem.
The money is there to build an overpass now and we should build it now.
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The level crossings in Scone are not dangerous in and of themselves. The issue that triggered this whole debate was that emergency vehicle access to one side of Scone could be blocked if a train were to break down and block both crossings.
A well thought out bypass (that incorporates an overpass), will solve the potential breakdown problem and provide much needed relief from heavy vehicles using Scone’s main thoroughfare as an overtaking opportunity.
You deserve the credit for your work to bring this matter to a head and have a budget allocated whilst in government – well done. With the potential for government spending to solve two issues, I would have thought a well thought out alternate route (incorporating an overpass) would be a sensible use of ‘our’ resources.
Steve Guihot