The petrol station, restaurant and convenience store will be built on Diamond Drive, at the site of a major neighbourhood centre.

Cr Alice Glachan told this week’s council meeting that many Thurgoona residents had been calling for a service station for years.

Bur she acknowledged there had been some opposition to the development since plans went out for display in December.

“Not everyone in our community will be happy with this, not everyone in Thurgoona or parts of Albury will be happy,” she said.

“Development such as this enables the people who do live in Thurgoona, or beyond Thurgoona, to access facilities and services that they otherwise have to travel significantly greater distances for.

“At some stage, somewhere in that growing corridor, we will need to have these facilities and services.”

Cr John Stuthbery, a former Thurgoona resident, also backed the plan and said it was appropriate as the suburb did have a petrol station 20 years ago, which was replaced by a supermarket.

“Thurgoona needs its own service station … it probably needs its own fast food outlet,” he said.

“I’d be pretty keen to see this application move forward.”

The service centre would open 24 hours, seven days as would the fast food outlet to be built in stage two.

Deputy mayor Amanda Cohn and Cr Murray King voted against the development, saying the decision should be delayed.

Cr Cohn said this was not because she was against a Thurgoona service station, but because it should be considered at the same time as another proposed development on an adjacent lot, due to come before the council shortly.

“I think it’s really critical that we see what the whole neighbourhood centre is going to look like before we go ahead and approve a development on this lot,” she said.

The council will also require the developer to enter an agreement to create an “open public space” as part of the service centre.