ACROSS the board opposition is mounting towards a proposed highway duplication between Katoomba and Lithgow.
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Now a heavy hitter has joined the campaign - the National Trust.
The latest grand plan for the highway was announced last year with input invited by Roads Minister (and our local MP) Paul Toole.
And from what we're hearing the feedback has been largely negative.
Strip development over the decades means that any highway work over the Mountains will be difficult but this latest 'duplication' thing has special issues.
Mt Victoria and Medlow Bath are real challenges but the big one is Blackheath .
Across the Blue Mountains there is an opinion widely aired in the media that this is a costly 'plot' to invite more and bigger monstrous B Doubles onto the route - a view reinforced by more recent moves to impose controversial environmental controls on diesel freight trains.
Now the highest levels of the respected National Trust has joined the chorus of concerns about the threat.
The main concern is for Blackheath where there are fears the village charm could be decimated and with it the vital tourist appeal.
Already roadworks have been going on for a couple of years with not much more to show for it than a shifting of merging lanes.
There's no denying that Blackheath with its main intersection is the worst pinch point in the Mountains but options without major long term disruption (even destruction) are limited.
Just up the road at Mt Vic a tunnel is the ambitious suggestion to bypass Victoria Pass (a problem looming there for tankers) and something similar has been floated for central Blackheath.
Perhaps the real needs should be addressed between Medlow Bath and Blackheath and Forty Bends and Donnybrook then urge weekend day trippers just to be patient at Blackheath.
Wipeout!
SO, panic purchasing finally hit the fan in Lithgow mid week, leaving supermarkets totally devoid of one of life's great staples - dunny paper!
There were desperate faces on latecomers as they surveyed the empty shelves before detouring, it seemed, to the facial tissue, serviette and even kitchen paper aisles.
The panic attack has whipped up a new era of toilet humour.
One radio caller advised listeners to be ''...cautious about buying toilet paper in the street. It could be fake."
And who would have thought a day would come when scalpers were trying to rip off frustrated Sorbent seekers online?
It really could be the end of days after all.
