Group manager transport and utilities, Wayne Sartori said that it wasn’t a council road and therefore not a council matter. However Mr Sartori said that the matter had been raised with the emergency management committee.

Asked about access for emergency services in the event of an accident, Mr Sartori said that he understood there would be access.

Cr Fitzpatrick had also raised the matter and any relationship to current logging, with Andrew Constance’s office. NSW Forests through Mr Constance's office said: “The reasons for the changed access to Nethercote Falls is based entirely on community safety and is unrelated to harvesting. The current harvesting operation in Nullica State Forest that began on Monday, August 10 is due for completion in early October.”

Asked whether there was any possibility of the area being opened again, NSW Forests said that because there were significant community safety issues the decision had been made not to promote the area.

But Cr Fitzpatrick is disputing the nature of the danger. He said that he had taken a two wheel drive vehicle along the road, which is to be closed, and reached the car park at the top of the pathway to the falls area without any trouble.

In reply to Cr Fitzpatrick, NSW Forests maintained: “The road is not in good condition and has safety issues for two wheel drive traffic. The steep grade of the road also causes siltation into the valley during wet weather. Works are scheduled for early September to install a locked gate on this road and emergency services will have an access key should they need to gain access.”

Cr Fitzpatrick also asked how the road became so bad that it needed to be gated but Forestry said it was discouraging visitation to minimise the danger to visitors but was not closing the forest. “People may still access the area on foot,” Cr Fitzpatrick was told.