Sometime in the future, the people of Townsend might have a choice in where they fill up their car.
Next week Clarence Valley councillors will decide on whether to allow the conversion of the fuel depot on Jubilee st, Townsend, into a fully fledged service station.
The decision to allow retail fuel sales from what is currently an above ground diesel fuel tank, refuelling area and canopy primarily for interstate trucking business Nicholson Page Transport, could hinge on the upgrade and maintenance of the entrance.
However, the council documents revealed that during a site inspection in April last year it was observed “fuel was being sold from the site”, contravening condition 24 of the development consent.
The consent required the depot “be for the exclusive use of Nicholson Page Transport only, with no retail sales of fuel”.
“It appears that the owners were of the understanding that sales of fuel were allowable as long as the main use of the fuel tank was for Nicholson Page Transport,” the council documents stated.
The documents also stated the manoeuvring area pavement at the site will have to be upgraded in accordance with councils Development Control Plan and when a site inspection was carried out in April this year, significant damage to the seal at Re rd and Think rd was noted.
A council engineer noted that annual dilapidation surveys from the intersection of the two roads had not been carried out despite them forming part of the original development consent.
“No traffic impact assessment was provided with the application and there are obvious impacts from the current use of the site,” the documents stated.
“The existing traffic movements have caused damage to the road and additional commercial vehicular traffic will further contribute damage to the road pavement and seal.
“It will be required that the applicant make repairs to the existing pavement failures attributed to the current and future use of the site.”
The staff recommendation is to grant the development consent subject to conditions.
A decision will be made on the DA at next Tuesday’s council meeting.
Extracted from Daily Examiner