Despite half a dozen presentations to council and submissions up to 19 pages long, Battersby has yet to succeed in his quest. But he's determined to see the fight through to the very end.
"Till death do us part - but the way the blood pressure's going I don't know how long that's going to be."
Battersby made his most recent appeal to council on March 22, when he may finally have gained some traction, with council agreeing to a report to quantify the scale of the issue.
Battersby said the dust-suppression policy was outdated and did not take into account the intensified dairy, sheep and beef farming operations in the area since it was adopted.
"It's not fit for purpose anymore."
Black Rd resident Darryl Wilson has lived in the area all his life and said the amount of traffic along the road had gone "absolutely ballistic" due to increased dairying and farming activity.
"You've got silage trucks, you've got milk tankers, including vehicles of all the staff, going up and down the road. It's just ridiculous."
The council trialled a chemical dust suppressant in 2015 which lasted for only one summer after it was found to be ineffective.
Last August it trialled recycled chip seal, which it said noticeably reduced the dust.
But longtime resident Nicki Tillett said the dust problem was ongoing.
She was worried about possible health effects of the dust settling on the roof and feeding into her water tanks, which she used for drinking water.
She had calculated that 14 property owners along Black Rd and nearby Boyle Rd collectively contributed $116,000 a year in rates to council, and weren't asking for much in return.
"We have to supply our own water, we don't get our rubbish picked up like the people in town.
"The only result we should see for our rates money is [roading] and we are not seeing that. When we rattle the cage maybe the grader will go up once or twice a year but that's it.
"Why are we less deserving of having a good road?"
Cost factor
Of the 1200km of roads in CHB, 402km are unsealed.
The Black Rd residents say they have had quotes from contractors to get the job done for $75,000 per kilometre, but were left frustrated when council came back with a wildly different figure of $240,000 per kilometre.
"Every time we get there we get some orchestrated litany of horses**t," Battersby said.
Federated Farmers senior policy adviser Rhea Dasent recently criticised the council's road rating charges.
She said the road rate, struck on land value, meant a medium-value farm would pay more than $4000 towards roading, but meanwhile the amount of unsealed roads in CHB had only reduced by a few kilometres to 402km since 2015.
Council chief executive Monique Davidson said it had received positive feedback about the effectiveness of the current dust-suppression trial on Black Rd since it started last August, however further monitoring was required.
She said the council had discussed the residents' concerns and their request to seal Black Rd at a recent council workshop and then subsequently at the council's finance and planning subcommittee meeting on March 22.
"Council acknowledges the concerns, but want to make sure when giving consideration to this they do it with the information which gives them a wider view of the issues and opportunities with unsealed roads in [CHB]."
She said the council had requested a report by the end of the year to quantify the scale of the issue, including some "robust" financial modelling on the direct and indirect costs and benefits of any action the council might take.
"This report will assist council in determining if any future changes are made to the current dust suppression policy."
Battersby wanted the policy changed and soon.
"They're fiddling while Rome's burning."
