Related: Council rescinds bypass rejection
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HORSHAM Rural City Council has reached a stalemate on the future of a city bypass after an epic four-hour meeting on Monday night.
In a heated debate, council failed to come to a decision about what direction it needed to take in determining a bypass route.
Cr David Grimble first moved that council should investigate bypass routes other than option D.
Option D would see a connection between the Western Highway and Gatehouse Road to the east of Horsham with a Henty Highway intersection.
However, the idea was defeated, with councillors Les Power, Mark Radford, Alethea Sedgman and mayor Pam Clarke voting against it.
Cr Radford then moved council should not investigate any other route options.
That motion was also defeated, with Crs Sedgman, Grimble, Josh Koenig and John Robinson voting against it.
The moves come after council decided to reject bypass option D at a meeting last month.
Monday night’s meeting started with Cr Radford rescinding that decision, saying the route was voted on when three councillors were absent, meaning it was unfair.
The meeting’s outcome means the council's position to oppose option D remains unchanged
Cr Grimble said council was at risk if it chose not to act on the bypass.
“If council don’t seize the opportunity to find out what the community wants, the planning minister will make a decision anyway,” he said.
“If council doesn’t take leadership and say what they need to, I’m not sure what my value is on this council,” he said. Cr Grimble said there were alignments that didn’t affect a single resident.
“If there is another opportunity to review an option that doesn’t impact a resident, we need to look at it,” he said. Cr Grimble said there had been little leadership shown by council to choose a preferred option.
Cr Clarke said the community had been going through this process for the past eight years.
“We’ve had an independent panel, there have been discussions with the community and we have heard from people over the years who are affected by the bypass options,” she said.
“We have heard from VicRoads on many occasions, we’ve met with ministers and we received a letter stating there was no more money to investigate other options.
“We cannot get caught up in the needs of a few at the detriment of a whole.”
Cr Clarke said if council didn’t act appropriately, VicRoads could make a decision on council’s behalf.
Cr Radford said since 2008, there had been at least 18 route options investigated.
“I believe the time for researching more options has passed,” he said.
“We need to move on, we need to get a line on the map.”
Cr Radford said the ongoing uncertainty about the proposed route was affecting people’s health in the region.
Cr Robinson urged councillors to start advocating for the community.
A spokesman for Planning Minister Richard Wynne said the minister had requested council form a view on the bypass and was waiting on council’s position.
“If they are unable to form a view, the minister will establish a process to finalise the route,” he said.