Chairman Garry West said a number of issues raised by the council and the public were able to be addressed at the panel’s meeting this morning at Tamworth Regional Council chambers.

One of those was the safety of the road’s intersection with Browns Lane – a notorious area that’s been the subject of an upgrade in recent months.

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The council told the panel it had just learnt it would be receiving Black Spot Program funding for a roundabout there.

“This was an excellent application and council were able to submit to us an appropriate handling of it,” Mr West.

“Once we’ve done our final sign-off with the determination statement, council will issue the consent to the applicant and they have, I believe, a number of engineering matters they have to address before they can get a construction certificate.

“Once they have that, then they can commence work.”

The applicant, RSL LifeCare, aims to build 57 self-contained units for seniors and a 62-room, two-storey residential care facility, including a dementia wing, a community centre and a bowling green.

The council backed the development at its ordinary meeting of April 24.

However, because the development application has a capital investment value of more than $30 million, the panel was the consent authority.

“Council planning staff do the assessment, and the key issues that they identified came out of both their assessment and the submission from the public,” Mr West said.

“A key one was the safety issues relating to the intersection of Moore Creek Road and Browns Lane.

“That has been resolved, as council has now successfully applied for and received Black Spot funding to assist toward the installation of a roundabout.

“Also, the traffic committee is considering a reduction in the speed through that intersection from 80km/h to 60km/h.”

Mr West said other matters addressed related to stormwater and the development’s location within 40 metres of a natural watercourse.

“The last issue that was identified was the bulk of scale, particularly of the community centre part of it,” he said.

“The architect indicated that whilst it was going to be a two-storey facility, there is going to be an excavation of the area, which would mean the ridge line would not visually appear to higher than a normal single-storey building.

“Overall the committee resolved they were happy with those issues and agreed to approve the development ...

“It’s an area that has been identified in the New England North West Regional Plan 2036 as being in an area for future residential development and there is considerable residential development occurring out there now, and this fits uniquely into that mix.”