Tamworth councillor Jim Maxwell claims mining-giant Whitehaven won’t employ any more people from Manilla due to Rangari Rd’s perilous state.
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Following Tuesday night’s Tamworth Regional Council meeting, Cr Maxwell urged action on the road, which runs through Tamworth, Gunnedah and Narrabri local government areas.
Cr Maxwell said Whitehaven would not employ any more people from his hometown due to the state of the main road between Manilla and the Maules Creek mine.
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A spokesperson for Whitehaven Coal rejected the claim and labelled it “incorrect”.
The spokesperson said the mine employs “more than 50 people from the Manilla area” and was “committed to local people filling local jobs”.
Manilla-based workers commute more than one hour to the Maules Creek mine for work and Whitehaven implements a fatigue management strategy.
“The fatigue management standard requires journey management plans to include an assessment of employees’ fitness for work including travel times, length of shifts and time between shifts,” the spokesperson said.
An online poll conducted by The Leader found the majority of respondents were in favour of upgrading Rangari Rd.
More than 69 per cent of voters said an upgrade couldn’t come soon enough.
Only 13 per cent said it was fine in its current state, while more than 17 per cent of voters suggested more pressing road priorities.
Narrabri mayor Cathy Redding wasn’t keen to bump Rangari Rd up her shire’s priority list and said a business study was conducted on upgrading the road which showed the benefit didn’t outweigh the costs.
“It was dealt with a business study at the end of 2015 and it came back that it didn’t have a BCR (benefit cost ratio) that rated as a priority,” Cr Redding said.
When it came to banding together with Gunnedah and Tamworth to fix the road, Narrabri will focus on its own backyard, according to the mayor.
“We’ve got other roads that would be a priority,” she said.
“When the BCR doesn’t stack up, it’s not something we want to do.”
At Tuesday’s meeting, Cr Maxwell said he was “frightened someone could be killed on the road with the condition it’s in”.
He asked if council could “expedite support” from neighbouring shire to fix the road.
Gunnedah council was contacted for comment.