It will be another month before the council brings more site options to the table for the much anticipated rehabilitation centre.
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Dubbo Regional Council Chief Executive Officer, Murray Wood, will provide a report to the July ordinary meeting to address the financial, regulatory and legal matters around the provision of land for the facility.
After the first lot of funding for the centre was announced in 2019, a four-hectare site on Spears Drive was confirmed as the location in February of this year.
The announcement was met with immediate opposition and now the State Government has confirmed it will look at other sites - namely the North Bunglegumbie location - if council is to put any forward.
Councillor Pam Wells - who has been a strong advocate for the drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre - put forward the motion because she believed the council needed to be "very clear" that Spears Drive was "absolutely not" where the rehab should be placed.
![Councillors Vicki Etheridge and Pam Wells with rehab campaigner barrister Stephen Lawrence. Picture by Amy McIntyre Councillors Vicki Etheridge and Pam Wells with rehab campaigner barrister Stephen Lawrence. Picture by Amy McIntyre](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/37qTRiw9gHRe7AczHzCfjaK/755f8932-98de-4f83-a290-e8c15d767878.jpeg/r0_844_8256_5504_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"We absolutely cannot have such a facility in a residential area where there are great concerns for both the residents living there and the service users," she said.
"There are better parcels of land out there for us to pursue to work with the local health district to ensure we get the right centre in the right place to provide the right service for the people who need to use it."
Not everyone agreed with councillor Wells' motion, with deputy mayor Richard Ivey saying he didn't understand how having the CEO bring a report back to council will help.
"The motion doesn't even mention Bunglegumbie Road, it doesn't say we should use that site instead of Spears Drive," he said.
With the argument that the rehabilitation facility shouldn't be located in a residential area such as Spears Drive, Cr Ivey said Bunglegumbie Road would be no better.
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"That area will be a residential area in five years time, it will be in the middle of a residential area," he said.
Mr Wood said the original decision to withdraw the Bunglegumbie land was made public in a report that went through the standing committee of council on May 12, 2022.
Mr Wood explained that with water, sewer and electricity needs for the Bumblegumbie sites, it could delay the opening by three to 12 months depending on the land decided upon.
With the NSW Government wanting the site open by 2025, the delays would make the site operational in 2026 or later.
Councillor Wright, who also voted against councillor Wells' motion, said he found it frustrating the NSW Government had plenty of time to hit the "pause button" on this proposal while listening to the concerns of the local community.
"It seems the concerns of the community have fallen on deaf ears," he said.
"I get the indication [the NSW Government] want to move ahead very quickly and want to have the doors open to that facility in 2025 and that's only a couple of years away."
Councillor Josh Black, who previously said the government needed to admit they "botched" the location, said Minister Ryan Park inviting council to work with the government was actually an invitation for council to correct a mistake.
"The concerns of the community haven't fallen on deaf ears...the health minister has encouraged the 10 councillors to come forward with alternative locations for the Dubbo Rehab Centre, so let's do that," he said.
"We're here because of the withdrawal of that North Bunglegumbie site, we wouldn't be here talking about this now and Spears Drive and dumping a rehab centre right next to established residential neighbourhood except that this council, staff and his council in the May 2022 withdrew the offer of land."
Refuting the other councillors claims that the Bunglegumbie site would be in residential land, Cr Black said residents would know what they're moving into.
"It'll be an established rehab centre and people can probably say, 'oh we can live there' and people would move in with full knowledge of what's there," he said.