Dubbo councillor Shibli Chiwdhury calls for better freight rest areas, toilets

At the July Dubbo Regional Council meeting, councillor Shibli Chowdhury called for a report on the existing and future rest areas for freight in the Dubbo urban area.

He said there was a growing need for more facilities in the local government area.

It's an issue causing Dubbo truck driver Rod Hannifey increasing frustration.

"There's only one truck bay from the Queensland border to Darwin that has toilets. And yet every single car bay has toilets in it and the caravan bays have toilets in them. And they have [toilets] in their own vehicle, we don't have them in the trucks," he said.

"You'd never get a triple road train in one of those car bays, you can't park on the shoulder. You'd end up tearing it apart and running over everything and everybody."

Mr Hannifey said truck stops with something simple like a table and chairs to be able to eat at were also rare.

Cr Chowdhury said there were about 298 kilometres of roads in the Dubbo LGA relied on by the freight industry.

The Transport for NSW website shows there are 13 rest areas for freight in the Dubbo LGA. Of those, there is only one that has a toilet.

There's another one Cr Chowdhury said TfNSW was investigating to see if facilities would be feasible.

"We really have a big freight network in Dubbo but our rest areas are not up to mark," he said.

Councillor Matt Wright said members of the public had contacted him about the city's rest areas.

"I've had a number of people approach me with respect to the rest area on the southern entrance to the city on the Newell Highway...and the importance of having facilities there so guests that use that particular rest stop now don't use nature for the call of nature which seems to be what is happening, anecdotally," he said.

He said it was "fit for purposed maybe 10 years ago".

The lack of facilities was one of the reasons councillor Josh Black said a bypass was needed in Dubbo.

The lack of one highlighted the "shabby way" Dubbo had been treated by previous state and federal governments, the councillor said.

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