On Tuesday Nationals candidate for the seat of Dubbo, Dugald Saunders was in Narromine to launch a petition he hopes will lead to the improvement of the Mitchell Highway including the installation of more overtaking lanes between Narromine and Dubbo. 

“One of the commitments I’ve made as a nominee for pre-selection, was I wanted to start work as soon as possible on getting a better road between Narromine and Dubbo and part of that being more overtaking lanes,” Mr Saunders said. 

“The people have told me consistently that this is just about their top priority.”

“I just want to make sure we make it a much safer road than it is and a far more pleasurable road to travel because it’s pretty ordinary at the moment,” he said. 

While Mayor Davies agrees this is a long overdue situation, he hopes that this isn’t just another election promise and will see the situation addressed in a serious manner. 

“It’s a good initiative and something that should have been done a long time ago, and certainly it’s not just a benefit for the people in the Narromine shire, it’s a benefit to everybody who uses the road west of Dubbo,” Mayor Davies said. 

“I just hope these don’t become election promises, because at the end of the day people want to see things happening,” he said.

“[People] don’t want to wait for choices, promises mean nothing from politicians these days I’m afraid.”

“We need to see action, and we need to see it before the election,  or people are going to be sceptical about all the promises made by politicians,” he said.

Currently almost 450 vehicles travel between the stretch of highway in both directions between Dubbo and Narromine each morning and afternoon for work, and that’s not taking into consideration the contractors, trucks and other people who use the highway. 

“It is a very busy road … the road is in very ordinary condition in many places, and it needs at least two more passing lanes both ways.”

“Unless you get a kilometre of good straight road with no vehicles coming so it can lead to frustrated drivers taking risks they normally wouldn’t which can lead to accidents.”

“It needs to be addressed in a more serious manner,” he said. 

“Troy Grant certainly made a lot of noise about [the road between Narromine and Dubbo] six to eight months ago but nothing seems to have eventuated.”

“There seems to be a limited pot of what can and can’t be done on the roads, but when there’s $70 billion being spent on infrastructure in Sydney, a proportional basis of infrastructure spending just doesn't appear to be happening in regional areas and that is a bit of a concern.”

The petitions are available to sign at the Narromine Newsagency, Brennos Bakery, Soul Food and at Delta Ag in Trangie.