I WRITE in order to express my astonishment that the Hastings Shire Council has done nothing to address the obvious traffic congestion at the corner of Williams and Hollingsworth Streets in Port Macquarie.
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Having returned to Macquarie Towers for our annual January visit - admittedly a very busy tourist period - I have witnessed the extensive delays and obvious frustration of motorists in trying to access Williams Street from Hollingsworth Street.
This morning I have witnessed many vehicles having to wait in excess of 12 minutes to make a right turn into William Street.
As a resident of Gunnedah I might point out that this delay is significantly longer than the time it takes for us to wait for the huge 1.3 kilometre long coal trains to pass through Gunnedah and delay traffic at our three railway crossings.
These traffic delays in Gunnedah were originally in excess of 10 minutes but, through upgrade of the rail track and yards, have been reduced to 3 or 4 minutes following community outcry.
Many of the drivers that I have witnessed in Port over the last three days have shown their frustration by changing to the left lane and proceeding in the opposite direction to their original intent while some have made the dangerous alternative of doing a U-turn and travelling back southward in Hollingsworth Street.
The answer to the problem appears to be simple-a roundabout should be installed asap in order to address the matter thereby utilising a modern, engineering solution to solve the bottleneck.
I realise today is an inclement day and more people are using vehicles than usual but, as Port is a growing tourist , commercial and retirement centre, this situation is going to be magnified as time goes on.
As a local government councillor I also realise that the demands upon local councils in growth centres such as Port are numerous and costly but this present, unacceptable situation appears so obvious that I believe it should be addressed immediately.
Council may already have plans to address the matter and if that is the case I will, perhaps optimistically, look forward to seeing the results of their efforts when I return in January, 2017.
Owen Hasler