Residents were quick to express their disgust this week after Council permanently shut the road on Monday. 

After travelling along the road for more than 40 years, Armidale’s Jennifer Blackburn vented her frustration on Facebook.

“Registering my anti-closure vote … hang on, I don't recall any public consultation,” Ms Blackburn said.

But according to the Armidale Regional Council the community were involved in the process.

Council’s director of infrastructure Rob Shaw said a lengthy consultation procedure produced a 50-50 divide within the community.

“There was lots of consultation and in fact there was a petition submitted to Council with lots of responses,” he said.

Council say they heard from a good cross section of the community, receiving over 100 responses.

“The feeling amongst the community was very close to half-and-half and it was a very democratic process in the end,” Mr Shaw said.

“The key thing is, it was a decision made between a developer of the subdivision and Council at the time that the development application was approved.”

It’s a decision that was made around eight years ago and that was largely irreversible.  

“I think that Council didn’t have much choice of whether to close it or not because of the VPA,” Mr Shaw said.

The voluntary planning agreement was initially introduced to address Roads and Maritime Services traffic access legislation.

“From a traffic point of view the RMS likes to limit the number of roads that access the highway,” Mr Shaw said. “That was what this VPA was all about … it was about providing this new road that will be linked to a roundabout and closing the inferior intersection.”