Council Connect: 22 November 2024

Published on 22 November 2024

Hi, I'm Digby Rayward, the Mayor of Dungog shire, and I'm happy to present this week's Council Connect.

It's been a challenge for the General Manager and myself early this week; we had plenty of talkfests, and we started off with a trip to Parliament House in Sydney to a meeting of the Country Mayors Annual General Meeting. Country Mayors is a group formed to represent the interests of smaller rural shires like ourselves. It's a good opportunity to see what relevant policies we need, join together as a group, because there's strength in numbers, and we get plenty of access to the politicians and to lobby those particular interests that affect us.

Then we took off for Tamworth, where we had the Annual Conference of the Local Government NSW. This is a combination of all shires in NSW. There are over 1000 people and little old Dungog sitting there. The General Manager and I certainly did our best to represent Dungog. There are probably 110 motions debated through the day, but you have to be at the table, even though we're small, because the mantra of this organisation is one voice for councils, and there's always strength in numbers when we're lobbying politicians because they need numbers to get reelected. So, it was a challenge for us, but well worth it, and a lot of networking as well.

Also this week, we had our biggest council meeting for our new members on Wednesday night. There was a fair bit on the agenda. It was certainly pleasing to see that three of our four new Councillors put up notices of motions, which shows they're listening to the community, and trying to get that message from the community back as policy matters for us.

A couple of interesting ones for us, and we're looking for feedback, was a community dog park. There's been a lot of interest from the community in having a local dog park where you can let the dogs off and have a run. There are a number of positive points in having one: a lot of social interaction and it's been pointed out as a very necessary community interest. We're looking for feedback from community members to find the sites that may be relevant to us. Once we get a listing of sites, then we'd come back to the community and find out which is the best one. Have a look at that and join us on Facebook and give us feedback on that one.

The other interesting one was the identification of the lookout areas in the shire. You just have to go across Bingleburra and look north to see some magnificent views and you think, if only I had a chance to pull off the road here and have a look. Bingleburra is not the only one; there are plenty of sites, so we're asking the community to give us feedback, identify sites that you think are very relevant for us, and we'll have a good look at them and see which ones are suitable to do something with. When the appropriate funding is available, we'll certainly do our best to get them up, and they'll be a great tourist attraction as well for us, which always brings in the dollars.

Well done to the young ones. Don't forget to give feedback on those ones.

There has been much discussion about the primitive camping sites, which are very important for us now. This is an ongoing story, and it's certainly not off our radar. It's high on our radar, so we'll be working on that in the next few months and see how we go.

On a drier note, there were certainly some documents that went out for 28 day review, and good luck to you if you have the chance to read them.  There's the Asset Management Policy and Community Engagement, and that's out for 28 days. There's a State of the Shire Report, which is a bit like a report card for when you're at school. You can have a look at that and see if we've actually achieved anything. Have a look for those documents and give us some feedback if they tickle your fancy.

 Don't forget the Dowling Street Christmas party next Friday. Next Friday starts at 4pm. Get yourself down to Dowling Street. Come on community, get involved. And don't forget the Friday radio session at 1pm. The General Manager has been dragged into that one, so he'll give you an update,

Good on you all, have a good weekend, and I’ll catch you soon. Cheers.