Wagga mayor Dallas Tout on Wagga-Ladysmith rail trail debate

The Daily Advertiser

Mayor Dallas Tout discusses the next step for the Wagga to Ladysmith rail trail following debate at the May 26, 2025 meeting of Wagga City Council.

Transcript

00:00Look, the debate was healthy. There was a large number of people in the gallery from a varied

00:05variety of positions but I think the debate was quite healthy. The original motion that went up

00:13wasn't the recommendation from staff and then there was an alternate amendment put up and there

00:17was debate done in both sides of that but I think the position that was ended up on is

00:22is particularly good. So it took into account all the discussion that had been had, the number of

00:28speakers that were there and also a lot of the submissions that were sent to councillors of

00:33which there are a number. So I think we've ended up in a good spot with the creation of a steering

00:38committee to not move forward using council's funds when there wasn't a funding source identified

00:46and but to also reaffirm in principle the approval of council for the concept of rail trails.

00:52Yeah I was speaking to some supporters behind rail trail. Today they said we're happy that the

00:58project's endorsed but disappointed it didn't see the funding. What are your views on that?

01:03That's democracy. That's where you have a variety of opinions and variety of stakeholders and everyone

01:09has their position. Where we ended up I thought was a good middle ground in that like I said the

01:14creation of the steering committee that's still to come back with terms of reports to come back with

01:19terms of reference etc but also the important thing last night was the inclusion of Humila because

01:26that's only been initial discussions we can formally investigate internally in in regard to that option

01:34and there's no cost involved in that so because as I said that's only been initial discussions so

01:40we'll see what comes out of that with different stakeholders so everything's up for a discussion

01:45but particularly the steering committee gives the council an opportunity to get all stakeholders

01:50around the table whether that's landholders, rail train proponents or other members of the

01:57community. I think the other big win last night for the community was in relation to the funds

02:03it was clear in the report that if we had to go ahead and fund the detailed design then funding would

02:10have to be cut from other services in next year's consideration next year's budget to fund that

02:16so that was the third win it was the community in making sure we had some prudent financial

02:21decisions last night so in the end it ended up okay and debate is a healthy thing. I just want to touch

02:27on the extension from Rosebud Trail down to Humila to get that extension would there have to be some

02:33cross-council collaboration with Tomba Rumba? Yeah and that's what I've said look there's been initial

02:38very very brief um conversations with a couple of mares just to say would you be even involved in

02:45having a discussion about it and that's literally as far as it's gone so this will open that up

02:50because it includes Greater Hume and Snowy Valleys. What are their thoughts at the moment you've had

02:54those initial discussions? Yeah they're happy to sit down and have the discussions um they're interested

02:58particularly Snowy Valleys they have the Tumba Trail already and Greater Hume were interested in

03:03having a chat as well. There was a quite a big gallery last night filled with people from the

03:07Lady Smith community can you understand why they were quite antsy about wanting us to get up last

03:11night? Ah it didn't not get up we've just progressed the discussion so and as I said with a such a big

03:19gallery and such a variety of opinions not everyone will see everything they wanted get up but the

03:25position we ended up in I think was a good balanced one. Just on that I'm sure you would have seen the

03:32pieces of paper saying yes Rail Trail and it there was as Jared mentioned a packed gallery well I didn't

03:40even get a seat when I walked in the door and maybe that was because I came too late but um it is something

03:44that is topical it's something that obviously carries a lot of weight either way you look at it

03:50what is your I guess the final message to the community just about this trail it has been

03:55a long time in the plan yeah I think the final message is for particularly impacted stakeholders

04:03whether they're rail trial proponents or landholders come and have the discussions put the issues on the

04:08table let's see what we can work through but also to the general community two things to be actively

04:13involved so if we progress to it when we progress to the committee then please express interest it

04:21doesn't have to be from those two stakeholders it's a whole of community group and discussion that needs

04:27to be had so I'd encourage the whole community to be involved in that discussion

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