Message from the Mayor: 1 September 2023

Published on 01 September 2023

Hello, I'm John Connors, the Mayor of the Dungog Shire bringing you this week's Mayoral Message.

On Wednesday night of this week, Council held an Extraordinary General Meeting. The purpose of the meeting was to consider what action Council should take with respect to the appeal that's been lodged by the Daracon Group against the refusal of development consent for their proposal at Martins Creek Quarry.

The application for development consent was considered by the Independent Planning Commission and they, in about February of this year, refused consent.

The applicant has now chosen to appeal to the Land and Environment Court. Council is not automatically a party to those proceedings. But on Wednesday night Council resolved to engage its solicitors to seek to have Council joined as a party and participate in the proceedings. The participation will include initially participation in a conference under Section 34 of the legislation which is a conference intended to reach a resolution if possible to the application. If that's unsuccessful, which it more likely than not will be, then the matter will proceed to a hearing before the Land and Environment Court in due course.

So the decision is that Council is going to participate in the proceedings and take the position that it has taken to date before the Independent Planning Commission and that is dominantly opposing the transport of material by road, apart from local deliveries, and submitting that the materials should be transported by rail, particularly as there is an existing rail spur into the site.

Also this week there's been much chatter on social media about a business operating at the Boatfalls Estate at Clarence Town.

Statements made on social media would suggest or imply that Council may have been instrumental in causing the business to close down. The situation is that in about the middle of last year, Council was advised that there was a business operating and on carrying out an investigation it was established that the business was operating without consent and therefore unlawfully. Council didn't proceed to close down the business but rather had discussions with the operators and allowed the business to continue whilst the Development Application was lodged and considered by Council. That application was ultimately lodged and is still under consideration by Council, additional information has been sought from time to time. The last of that information was sought on the 23rd of August.

So at the moment, the application is still before Council. It hasn't been refused and it hasn't been withdrawn by the applicant.

There are however a number of issues that the applicant is required to address to enable the application to be approved and these include the provision of toilet facilities, at least for staff, and there are various other requirements relating to the sale of food and beverages for consumption on the premises.

So the application hasn't been refused and it hasn't been withdrawn.

The capital works continue and dominantly the road works at Park Street on Gresford are now complete apart from some guardrails that are waiting on contractors to install.

Clarence Town Road on the approach to Dungog again is substantially complete apart from line markings and the like. Sugarloaf Road was sealed during this week and again it awaits line marking and guardrails to be installed by contractors in due course.

Duke St in Clarence Town, the works continue there and the road is still closed apart from to residents.

Durham Rd in East Gresford, contractors are now on site and work has commenced this week, in particular, the preliminary works prior to the major road works.

Bridges continue, and perhaps the most impacted bridge or road is Jordan's Bridge on Summer Hill Road where the road is closed. And it's still anticipated that the bridge will be completed and the road will be open by the month of September, weather permitting. The weather forecast suggests that it will be dry so hopefully those works will be completed as planned in the next few weeks.

There is significant work going on with the various parks throughout the shire. At Patterson Sportsground the construction works to the entrance upgrade continue and at Clarence Town the playground equipment and works are reaching finality. However there's proposals to carry out further works and install further equipment within the Village Green at Clarence Town as funds are available.

In Dungog, the Showground to the common trail works are continuing on that trial and hopefully will be finished in the next month. At Bennett Park, the car park surfacing is continuing and the drainage works within the oval are also now underway and the oval is closed until those works are completed.

So there's plenty happening right throughout the shire.

With that, I think that's it for me for this week. So until next week, goodbye and good luck.