The Labor mayor blamed a bureaucratic mix-up for the delay after the RTA planned to start the demolition work before council considered changes to its Local Environmental Plan relating to Lawson village.

This LEP amendment — re-exhibited partly at the insistence of the RTA — is due to come before council on December 1 while the RTA planned to start the demolition work on October 26.

“It would be, in my view, outrageous if the demolition work was undertaken before the council finished its own process,” Clr Searle told the Gazette.

With uncertainty still surrounding the start date for the work at the time of going to press, Clr Searle has asked NSW planning minister Kristina Keneally to place an interim heritage order on the shops to protect them in the event the work is still scheduled to start before December 1. The mayor had earlier won a temporary stay of execution for the shops after meeting with NSW transport minister David Campbell with Blue Mountains MP Phil Koperberg last Monday.

However, he said his request to the planning minister was “not to try and stop this happening forever”, merely to ensure council’s “own decision-making processes are not rendered useless”.

The delay has left the Lawson Public School community waiting even longer for new traffic lights that would have improved safety for its parents and students.

“I understand that once those shops were demolished the traffic lights would go in, but that’s not looking like happening anytime in the future,” said Lawson Public School P&C president Cheryl Adams.

“There’s still several weeks where a nasty accident could occur so we do have major concerns about that.”

Although he had not been formally notified of the school’s concerns, Clr Searle said he did not want a situation where safety was compromised.

“I would in no way want to jeopardise the safety of the students. Any action would have to have that as the prime consideration,” he said.

While the issue only came to a head last week, the RTA advertised its intentions to demolish the five shops in the Blue Mountains Gazette on October 7.

The shops in question are located at 287-292, 299 and 300 Great Western Highway and include the former Lawson Radio and TV building, Two Front Doors Cafe and Mountains Magic Cafe.