Message from the Mayor: 21 June 2024

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

Last Wednesday night saw the monthly Council Meeting at which there was a development application for consideration by council relating to a dog breeding establishment on Fishers Hill Road at Fishers Hill. This matter has been before Council on a number of occasions in the past, the operation first having come under notice from a complaint following which a development application was lodged and was subsequently withdrawn, and then a further development application was lodged which was before Council for consideration. There were a number of objectors to the proposal from the neighbourhood, all of whom made submissions that they were significantly impacted by the noise from the breeding operation and the number of dogs that were kept on site. As a result of the peer review noise report to council and various other matters including the submissions, Council resolved to refuse development consent for the establishment. So a large number of people were present in the gallery both to present in the public participation session and also to be present to see the outcome of the application.  

Next Wednesday night is an Extraordinary Council Meeting, which is a meeting for Council to consider and hopefully adopt the budget for the 24/25 financial year. It should be a very short meeting with only one or maybe two items on the agenda. The main item is the consideration and hopeful adoption of the budget because the 30th of June, or 1st July is very close, so the matter must be resolved next week.  

The state budget came down on Tuesday of this week and whilst there was nothing in it for Dungog Shire, the good news was that we didn't lose anything in the budget. Last year, the state government announced funding for the construction of a new fire station for fire and rescue in Dungog. Unfortunately, work has not commenced on construction and there was a fear that maybe that money might be lost, but it wasn't and the money has been retained in this year’s budget so we can only hope that fire and rescue commence work on the construction of the facility as soon as possible. Also in the budget, there was no adverse impact on the Clarence Town bridge. Again, that was always a risk in these times that the government may see greater priorities but they didn't. So as I said, we didn't get anything but fortunately we didn't lose anything in the budget, and I think in these times, that's probably an achievement. 

The roadworks continue throughout the shire, and with the $3 million worth of works being carried out at Hawthorn up the Allyn River. Those works are ongoing with traffic control being in place. Durham Road of course continues under traffic control and it's hoped that a temporary seal will be placed on the road in the coming week. Stroud Hill, the work there on stage one is continuing and again, it's hoped that there'll be a temporary seal in the very near future.  

Work will commence this coming week in Abelard St in Dungog between Mary and Mackay Streets with drainage works being undertaken. And in Clarence Town, Queen Street is now open to traffic. The detour has been removed, there is a seal on the road, and the road is once again open for traffic and looks to be a great achievement.  

Still on roads, tenders are about to be called for the last three stages of Clarence Town Road and once those tenders are in and awarded by Council, which will be by the next council after the elections in September, then that will see the completion of Clarence Town Road with all stages being complete once these that are going to tender have been finalised. So that is a great achievement to see the whole of that road within our LGA completed. 

The week also saw another round of the Community Building Program being fostered within the Dungog LGA by Jim Doyle from Gresford, but being entrepreneured by Peter Kenyon.  

Peter Kenyon is a renowned motivational speaker and he has conducted sessions earlier on in Gresford and more recently in Dungog. This week saw a session in Clarence Town which was very well attended by people from the various other centres throughout the Shire where it's intended that future sessions will be held. The ultimate aim is getting the community involved in community activities and hopefully creating an attitude within the community of not what can be done for me, but how can we bring about change, how can we do whatever it is that's set as a goal? So to that end, I wish the organisation well and hope that it produces fruitful outcomes.  

And with that, I think that's probably it for me for this week and until next week, after Council has hopefully adopted its budget to spend $37 million in capital works for the forthcoming year, good luck and goodbye.