Confidential report on Calala road into CBD

However council says the project was far from decided, with no option settled on, and is disappointed the documents were disclosed.

The report assesses the viability of a number of proposals and indicates two of the most expensive routes as possible options, with both in excess of $14m.

The Tamworth Regional Residents and Ratepayers Association (TRRRA) says for years it has championed a simple, direct and cheap route from Calala Ln to Scott Rd - however the report disregarded the option.

TRRRA’s vice president David McKinnon said their route would not only be more efficient, it would travel past a major area, the Outlook Calala residential estate, which will have 450 blocks.

"It makes sense to have the main route into town going past an area where a third of Calala's future residents are going to be," Mr McKinnon said.

"The options the report has flagged has traffic feeding through Calala's back streets to get to the floodplains.

“We don't think this is giving the people what they want, nor is it addressing our concerns, of the massive extra expensive of building three bridges.”

Unlike many of the routes, the report did not estimate the cost of TRRRA's suggestion.

“They didn’t even bother to put a cost on it in any form, which is another mystery,” Mr McKinnon said.

"Is it because it would be ludicrously low, compared to the others?”

While the report indicated some options should not be pursued by council, mayor Col Murray said no decisions had been made.

“The only time a decision is made is when a report is presented to council,” Cr Murray said.

He said the report was more like a discussion paper or a way to "open the batting".

"It is still very early days in the discussion," Cr Murray said.

"It isn't envisioned the new access will be required for quite some years. It may not even happen in the next term of council.”

Cr Murray said once the council had a better idea of the direction it would take with the development, it would open the project up to public consultation. 

"Certain once we get to that point, which will be well into the future, there will be a public process where the community will be asked for input,” he said.

"But first we've got to do the due diligence and the preliminary work to get the project to some level of maturity.”

Cr Murray, a resident of Calala, is “well aware” of the increasing traffic, but said the process to create a new access route was much more complex than many realised.

“In country areas we see a cuing distance of more than a few cars as an insurmountable challenge, but in reality RMS has different waiting time triggers.”

Cr Murray was disappointed the documents were leaked to the public.

"That was not a report to council, it was the subject of a confidential councillor workshop and someone broke that trust," he said.

"It's not a good way to govern and it's not a good way for the community to deal with these sorts of issues."

Cr Murray said councillors received advice from industry experts on all city planning decisions.

"[TRRRA] lacks the input of engineers and I think they've made some assumptions," Cr Murray said.

"The community democratic elected us, and trusts us to go through these issues on their behalf.

"I'm sure the ratepayers association is full of well-intentioned people who think they have something to offer, but I'm not sure how many of them were elected by the community."

TRRRA is in the process of getting a consensus from Calala resident about their preferred route.