Lithgow City Council has provided an update on the current situation at Glen Davis and it has caused mixed reviews from residents living in the valley.

With no emergency exit and one way in and out of town, flooding has become a serious issue for residents and campers in the Glen Davis area, when the low level causeway bridge that is lower then the height of the road gets covered with any significant amount of water or rain.

Four floods have trapped residents in the past five months.

Lithgow City Council's Director Infrastructure Services / LEMO Jonathon Edgecombe said council have consulted with the land affected owners of the right of carriageway.

"They have agreed that it must remain open for the purposes of emergency access only, however they do have legitimate concerns as a result of some residents and visitors, and I make no judgements as to who is responsible, doing the wrong thing and causing damage to their property and leaving the gates open, which puts pressure on stock protection," he explained.

"These concerns must also be addressed to ensure we deliver a solution that is in the best interests of both stakeholders; the community and the affected residents."

Mr Edgecombe said he reached out directly to the administering agency of the Natural Disaster Recovery Arrangements (NDRA).

The NDRA is a fund that Councils can access to restore essential public assets if they are declared to be natural disaster affected.

"Unfortunately, and somewhat confusingly, they had deemed this right of carriageway ineligible for expenditure under the NDRA. Hence, we must find another opportunity to restore the access," he said.

Council have inspected the carriageway and scoped the project.

"We continue to liaise with the owners to progress the project, which will involve the construction of a single lane, all-weather access, including adjacent fencing, of the full 3.5 kilometre length," he said.

"This will not be cheap, but Council understands the need."

While this may be great news for the residents of the valley, the full recovery will be a long process.

"Unfortunately, there are priorities across the region and we hear the calls from the Wolgan Valley, Kanimbla Valley, Hartley Valley and others alongside the Capertee Valley," he said.

"While a difficult task, Council will continue to prioritise work and allocate resources in line with the assessed risk.

"We are committed to this effort."

Glen Davis resident Kylie Marie said this response "does not surprise me".

"Other priorities until there is an emergency or death in the valley and then they will try and blame someone else," she said.

Resident Tygalily Keeley said their long standing problem with Council is that the Glen Davis community and surrounds have "asked, pleaded, asked again, begged and finally resorted to involving politicians" in the matter.

"I personally am saddened by the glaring fact that our council feels better to ignore and forget about us, hoping we will just forget our validated concerns," she said.

"I believe that only now, with a re-vamped Glen Davis community committee, we will be heard, seen and respected."

Ms Keeley said as far as the land owners go, she has her own ideas.

"We need to have the gates locked with identical locks, keys must be registered and supplied to vetted peoples, who will be responsible for letting people in and out during times of disaster," she said.

"It is regrettable that certain individuals have no respect to other peoples properties."

Ms Keeley said the other major problem with no way in or out is that some of the residents still work.

"Anyway happier times still to come," she said.

Resident Julie Gibson who has been pushing hard for the carriageway to be restored said she was "happy" that Council plan on building an all-weather road for emergency access to Glen Davis.

"This will be even better than in the past when only 4WD vehicles could use the track," she said.

But council's response did raise some more questions.

"Does "emergency" mean that any time the existing road is impassable we will be able to use this new road?" she asked.

Another question being raised is 'what happens when it floods before this new track is created?'

"In the meantime, while this road is still in the process of planning and budgeting and construction, can we have some system of making use of the existing track for those with a suitable vehicle and a serious purpose," she said.

"If the owners have concerns over the actions of some residents and visitors then some clear guidelines about who, when and how it can be used would go a long way to avoid this."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: