Narrandera Shire Council has given the green light for a new highway service station to be built at Gillenbah during its August meeting last week.

The council’s approval paves the way for the $3 million development lodged by Crewbuild, at the intersection of the Newell and Sturt highways.

The councillors voted unanimously to grant conditional approval for a service station at 16330 Newell Highway, after considering a report that found the proposal met all the relevant planning and environmental requirements.

The project is to be built on a currently vacant 26,908 square-metre site on the south-western corner of the Newell and Sturt highways with a northern frontage to Newell Highway measuring about 120m and an eastern frontage to Stuart Highway measuring about 192m.

The site is bounded by the existing “Narrandera Caravan Park” to the west and vacant land to the south.

The approved development will include four light vehicle service channels, four heavy vehicle service channels, 20 car parking spaces, including an accessible space, two caravan spaces, four truck parking bays, a loading bay, outdoor seating, a service station shop and vehicle access via the Sturt Highway.

The applicant considered the proposal to be a purpose-built highway service facility that is “compatible with the character and function of the highway intersection location” and will provide services for motorists and freight operators.

EV charging infrastructure was investigated, but “was not sufficiently advanced” to be included in the application, so there will be no electric vehicle charging on the site.

Councillor Cameron Lander backed the proposal during the council's discussion about the application.

“In terms of whether this is a viable business, I don’t think that’s any concern to council, nor should it be,” he said.

“I must admit a service station on that side of the highway with people going from Sydney to Adelaide is probably going to be a big thing.

“I think there are a lot of positives to it.

“The concerns that have been raised have been well and truly covered by the material in the report associated with the application.

“I definitely don’t have a problem supporting it.”

The report to the council determined that the development, which was deemed to be “a permissible use within the RU5 Village zone”, was unlikely to have any unreasonable environmental impacts and that any identified risks could be managed through consent conditions.

There were three submissions during the public notification process, with concerns raised about flooding, biodiversity impacts, vegetation removal, traffic safety, landscaping and the need for another service station.

Council did acknowledge the concerns raised in submissions, but found they had been adequately addressed through the assessment process.

A Flood Impact and Risk Assessment found the development would not significantly increase flood levels and biodiversity assessments found the site was not a threatened ecological community.

The report to the council stated the proposed development is unlikely to have “any unreasonable impact on the environment and where an adverse impact has been identified, appropriate conditions have been imposed to mitigate the effects”.

A Traffic Impact Assessment examined traffic concerns, but concluded the new service station would generate relatively low traffic volumes and access arrangements were redesigned following consultation with Transport for NSW.

With no substantive planning grounds to refuse the application, the council ultimately decided the development was suitable for conditional approval.