The approval of an $8 million, 98-room motel for Thornton, has come under heavy criticism from local residents who say their suburb has become over developed and under resourced in terms of infrastructure.
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A story published in The Mercury last week about the motel's approval, generated scores of comments from angry residents who said their suburb can no longer cope with exponential commercial and residential development.
They said thousands of new homes are being developed between Thornton and new suburb Chisholm, yet there had been no improvement to infrastructure.
"Roads can't handle it. School can't handle it. Can't get a park at the shopping center," one resident said.
And Cr Mitchell Griffin agrees. He voted against the development and said residents have had enough. "Local residents have raised concerns that they are seeing lots of development in their area with little infrastructure to support it," Cr Griffin said.
"Developments like this continue to add more traffic to the area. Particularly in the Glenwood Drive precinct which was poorly designed when originally constructed with a dog-leg obstacle course to Thornton Road.
"Thornton has seen a number of accidents already, particularly at the intersections on Raymond Terrace Road. Residents have raised their concerns for their safety with councillors on multiple occasions," he said.
"I wouldn't want to see all development put on hold, but there needs to be careful consideration, particularly larger scale developments until infrastructure can catch up.
"Earlier in August the councillors supported my motion calling on council officer to prepare a report on steps forward with addressing some of the issues in Thornton. This report is due back to council before the end of the year," Cr Griffin said.
"It is great to see the NSW Government coming on board with funding for Government Road.
"I was disappointed to see no commitment from our local member during the March election, so this is a nice step forward, although we still have a long way to go."
Ironically just last week Member for Maitland Jenny Aitchison said the the Berejiklian-Barilaro government had shown further disregard for Maitland's dire need for road infrastructure to cope with a growing population by rejecting not just one but two funding applications for urgently needed roadworks at Thornton.
Residential development in the Chisholm-Thornton corridor has fuelled an annual population growth of 7.7 per cent, Ms Aitchison said.
"I challenge the Deputy Premier and Minister for Regional NSW, John Barilaro, or the Regional Roads Minister, Paul Toole, to come to Thornton any weekday at peak time and explain why Maitland doesn't deserve state government money to fix our infrastructure backlog," Ms Aitchison said.
