Maitland City Council has compiled a plan to cater for the infrastructure needs expected with a forecast population boom in Lochinvar. 

It was interesting to hear the mayor Cr Peter Blackmore tell the Mercury yesterday he wanted better rail access to the rural western suburbs town and possibly another train station in the area.

This appears to be at odds with the Lochinvar Urban Release Plan, which would remove a number of public facilities, including the train station car park.

It begs the question: If Lochinvar needs another train station, why remove parking facilities?

You don’t have to look far to see how the changing needs of this city have led to backflips in infrastructure ­decisions.

After the 1955 flood, people were discouraged from living in central Maitland, but now council is encouraging people to live in the heart of the city.

Then there is the High Street mall. The city’s leaders decided in the 1980s to block vehicles from entering a major portion of Maitland’s main street to encourage people to walk around and look at the shops.

Fast forward to 2014 and the bulldozers have moved in the restore the traffic thoroughfare.

We are not saying that council was wrong in any of these decisions.

That council has developed such an in-depth blueprint for the future of Lochinvar shows how seriously they take the infrastructure needs of the town.

The needs of a community may change from decade to decade, but when it comes to important infrastructure decisions every angle should be considered. 

We call on the state government to also heed this message before removing the first piece of Newcastle rail line.