Congo residents meet with councillors to workshop Congo Road closure solutions

More than 70 residents attended the session at Kyla Hall, Tuross Head, run by an independent facilitator, to meet with mayor Mathew Hatcher and council staff and review community submission regarding the project.

Cr Hatcher said there was overwhelming support to work towards reopening the existing northern route, a section of which runs through privately-owned land.

The landowner withdrew public access through the property last November citing potential liability issues, leaving Congo residents to access Moruya via Congo Road south, off the Bingie Road highway intersection.

Cr Hatcher said the workshop was a first step for the new council toward solving a long-running and complex issue.

"If this was easy, we wouldn't be here tonight," Cr Hatcher said at the workshop.

"When councillors heard from residents earlier this year that all possible solutions hadn't been considered, we asked people to put forward those ideas so the council could look at them," Cr Hatcher said.

He said the workshop was an opportunity to look at the different community submissions and the council's response to them.

The 49 submissions could be grouped into six main ideas.

These included acquiring the existing access through the private property, acquiring different alignments through the private property, keeping the road closed, and a route via South Head Road and across Congo Creek.

Residents moved in a round-robin style around the room to view the six ideas and provide both positive and negative feedback on the concept.

The mayor said it was a successful session, conducted with goodwill and respect.

"We went into this with good faith and the community responded in kind," he said.

"I want to thank Congo residents for the effort made to present ideas, and again acknowledge their frustration about this complicated situation.

"It was clear the majority of residents at the workshop want us to work toward reopening the existing access, and were strongly against keeping the road closed."

Council's general manager Warwick Winn, just nine days into the job, told residents the workshop was the start of a process to find a solution.

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"We've been applying fresh thinking to this challenge and that will continue, as will our communication with residents to keep them updated," Mr Winn said.

Workshop materials and the community comments captured will be emailed shortly to attendees and available on the council's website.

Congo residents will receive a letter with a summary of the workshop and an invitation to provide their feedback on the ideas and the the council and community responses.

Meanwhile the council is working with Crown Lands to look at potential solutions involving a Crown Road reserve running through the private property.