Bega Valley Shire Council staff have hit back at claims the plans to demolish Cuttagee Bridge was for the purpose of increasing freight on the route, a claim they wanted to "myth-bust".
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In a meeting with Bega District News on Monday, November 1, council also announced the establishment of a Cuttagee Bridge Community Advisory Group.
The group of eight community members would have a key role in representing the community and providing advice to council on how to capture the heritage aspects of the bridge in the case of any future construction or restoration project at the site.
BVSC acting director of assets and operations Ian Macfarlane said the impetus on the group would be to, "dispel myths and get everybody on the same page, so we know where we're starting from".
He said there were a number of key stakeholders invited to participate in the group, not just those with the "loudest voices" on the matter.
Mr Macfarlane also said he had met with spokespeople from the Save Cuttagee Bridge community group, but there had been a lot "taken out of context" from those meetings that, "made good soundbites, but doesn't necessarily tell the whole picture".
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"Part of dispelling myths is to put out the actual position of council, the actual position of the bridge itself, and to try and chart a way forward for the bridge into the future," Mr McFarlane said.
"Why I use the word myths is that there was a particular soundbite taken out of context that we were going to try and turn it into a freight route. That is a line taken out of a very large document that is taken out of context.
"What we have to say is that a truck taking apples from Tathra to Bermagui is freight. A lorry taking feed to a farm on the road is freight.
"We don't mean that it's a freight route, we mean that it's capable of carrying freight. When we start evoking words like 'turning something into a freight route', it is already a route that carries freight, whether it be apples or passengers.
"The route is used by tourists but isn't necessarily a tourist route, it could be marketed as a tourist route and it is a very pretty route that tourists take, but that's not its prime function.
"It's function is to connect the communities of Bermagui, the Murrah, and Tathra and all of those outlying properties to basically where they can shop, go to school, it's a corridor to move people and things around safely and into the future".
He said the route also services many businesses in the area, such as wine growers, oyster producers, carrying people to Four Winds, or for farmers in the region.
"The state has declared it a regional road because it's a north-south access route to those communities, so it's a vital road in times of emergency."
He said the Princes Hwy was where council wanted to keep heavy vehicles, but it was important to have the Tathra-Bermagui Road designed in a way that traffic could be redirected in case of a highway closure.
"We would never be advocating it to be freight route, or the primary route to drive from the north to the south of the shire."
Project services manager Daniel Djikic also attended the meeting with BDN and said council's next move would be working with the community to develop something that, "ticks quite a few boxes".
"It's not just purely heritage, it's also a resilient structure, it's a cost-effective structure, a maintenance-friendly structure, it's a structure that's suitable for its location, and that's where we're at," he said.