GREATER Hume Shire has retreated from a plan to rename Jingellic Road after fierce resistance to the move from locals.
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The council this week binned two alternative road names, Wantagong Valley or Lankeys Creek, which were recommended by staff.
The contentious re-naming plan was sparked by perceived confusion in the area last summer when bushfires forced the road to be closed.
Jingellic Road also exists in neighbouring Tumbarumba, but the council agreed to back away from the idea and contact its neighbours to discuss difficulties the move had generated with long-term residents.
A month ago Greater Hume agreed to start the process of re-naming Jingellic Road and proposed Wantagong Valley as the replacement.
But the move met with overwhelming opposition from locals including Wantagong Fire Brigade captain Richard Harbison, whose mail box is located on Jingellic Road.
Mr Harbison was also in charge of the fire in January when the road was shut for almost two days and disputes there was any confusion.
“I don’t think it caused any confusion at all,” he said.
“Everyone knew we were talking about the Holbrook-Jingellic Road and it was being reported in the media that way.
“I was in contact with the council during the closure so that everyone was aware of the situation.”
He said commonsense had prevailed in halting the re-naming of Jingellic Road.
“Regardless if the name of the road is changed, the locals are still going to refer to it as Jingellic Road,” he said.
“Old habits die hard and people power has had a win.
“It would have been no skin off the noses of councillors, but I don’t think they realised the inconvenience it was going to cause people.
“You’ve got to notify banks, share registries, change business stationary and everything else when a change like this is made.”
The council report rejected this week stated it had to decide if the inconvenience of the name change out-weighed the impact of letting the status quo remain.
Council general manager Steve Pinnuck said the issue had been put on hold.
“We are going back to the drawing board,” he said.
“The confusion stemmed from which Jingellic Road was closed.
“It was the anomaly we were trying to resolve.
“It can put people through a lot of inconvenience with changing addresses and changing business stationary and they felt it wasn’t necessary at this stage.”