Message from the Mayor: 23 August 2024
Published on 23 August 2024
Hello and good morning everybody. I'm coming to you today on behalf of Mayor Connors. Due to the upcoming Local Government Elections, I'll be doing the Mayor's message for the next few weeks. We might have some other people as well, just to mix it up and give you a bit of variety.
This weekend, we've got the UCI Velosolutions Pump Track World Championship Qualifier on at the Dungog Common. What an outstanding event this is for our area and our region, a great economic driver for tourism. So it's shaping up to be a pretty good day of action. Council, as you might know, is a very proud sponsor, we're a major sponsor for the event. We're looking forward to seeing all the new visitors come to the region as a result of these World Championship qualifiers and experience all that our Shire has to offer, as well as all the world-class bike facilities up there at the Dungog Common. So, we certainly encourage everybody to get down to the Common on Saturday if you can to see first hand this world-class event. The racing begins at nine o'clock on Saturday, so if you want all the action, make sure you're there by them. The Mayor will be there making some announcements to the media as well, on behalf of the council and how proud we are to support it, so get along and have a look.
On to the upcoming elections, as you may have read recently and heard from Council's previous messages, the Local Government Elections are coming in September, on Saturday 14th of September. We are now in caretaker mode, and that's why I'm doing these messages. If you're interested in looking at the candidates, please go to the Local Government Elections website at the New South Wales Electoral Commission, and you can find out all you need to know there. You can also keep an eye on our Facebook page, because we do share a lot of important updates and information about these upcoming elections.
Please make sure you give careful consideration to who you're voting for on the 14th of September. Elected officials and local councils have a really important role in our local government areas because they help shape our future and they shape the Shire. They’re also responsible for making very significant decisions that have a far-reaching impact in our communities. So have your say and make your vote count. So put your vote in! Every vote counts, as they say.
We had our last Council meeting of the current term of council on Wednesday night, and it was quite a good affair. We had all our Councillors in attendance. Council adopted a recommendation amended in relation to our development applications and how we'll deal with those. We recently received orders from the Minister for Planning, as did all other councils across the state, in relation to our turnaround times, and part of that was trying to minimise the amount of time DAs spend with council. Council adopted an alternate recommendation, and that will allow the next council to consider the matter of what things they might like to see in terms of reducing DA turnaround times and restricting the amount of time they sit with applicants.
Our Works Progress Report, as well, outlines all those works that are being delivered each month. That's a monthly report. I encourage everybody to go online and have a look at that on our website. You can find out lots of information about what we're doing. In that regard, the delivery program, the last six monthly updates for the current Council, was also endorsed by the council unanimously. That's an excellent resource that just lets you know all the highlights of the things we've been doing over the last six months. And in addition to that, all the projects in particular that are highlights are outlined in that particular report. So if you want to save time, you can just go straight to the highlights section, have a look at what we've been doing.
The Mayor also did his own Mayoral report to Council, which was a reflection on the current term of the council. It's interesting that the end-of-term report also provides this information, but interestingly, under the current system, that goes to the new council. And certainly agreed with the mayor that it was wise and prudent to actually let people know what the current council had actually achieved during the current term. So certainly, the Mayor provided that report to the council on Wednesday night; he talked about some of the difficulties in the council's operations and elected areas in terms of COVID restrictions and how difficult that was to manage, and certainly, when I started that was in full stream. The Councilors had voted to reduce their numbers down from nine Councillors to six, and there's a popularly elected Mayor on top of that. At that time, four of those new Councillors who were appointed had not had experience as Councillors previously, so it was like a new council.
There's some other information in relation to the Mayor as Council's representative, and the council's adopted Advocacy Program. In conjunction with myself, the directors and executive managers, we certainly got stuck into the Advocacy Program, and the Mayor led that with the federal and state governments. That’s led to over $100 million in relation to project funds. It's been an extraordinary success, our strategy of working in partnership with all levels of government and with both sides of politics, where governments change. It really does show the importance of working with all levels of government and both sides of politics. It’s been an unprecedented amount of money. So, it's obviously been very successful, and all of these Ministers and important people in the government now know where Dungog Shire, which is great, and we're certainly working with them on better ways to fund local government. We've made a number of submissions in that regard, and we're looking at making sure that we can fund adequately our works and services into the future. That's something that has been worked very hard on.
The other things that have come out of it are there's been a lot of strategic planning work in terms of Council as an organisation and how we deliver services. Mayor Connors was keen to highlight the strategies and plans we've adopted, including the Economic Development Plan, the Cultural Plan, the Open Space and Recreation Plan, the Hooke Street Master Plan, they've all been completed in the current term of Council. The Clarence Town Structure Plan is now underway following recent funding, as well as the Clarence Town Flood Study, which was funded separately and has also commenced, so long outstanding, it's great to see those happening. The outstanding Rural Land Strategy is now being funded following the federal government's Housing Support Program announcement, which is just outstanding. It'll allow us to get stuck into that and finish it, which is great, and that'll help us review the local environment plan in the future as well, which is long overdue.
We've had a number of significant sporting complexes completed at Clarence Town and East Gresford, a major upgrade at Bennett Park in Dungog. The footpath down in Queen Street Clarence Town, from the school to the pool as it's known, and to the sporting complex is about to start, and we're also looking at a path from that sporting complex to the town centre down there. Also, that path is now funded from East Gresford to the School of Gresford. Again, that's been on the agenda for a while but we've got some funding for it now which is great, so that's going to become a reality. Excitingly, we've also got some electric vehicle charges about to be installed in Dungog and Vacy. We've been working for a couple of years on this, and we've been successful with some grants. Many thanks to the Hunter Joint Organisation and Dungog Regional Tourism, we're all working together to get these things done. The Mayor was particularly focused on the roads and bridges, and these were a great achievement during the term of Council. 23 timber bridges were replaced by April this year, which was an outstanding effort. We've now been successful with advocacy, getting the money for the new bridge over the Paterson River at Gresford, so that is an outstanding effort, and that only leaves one more bridge that's primarily timber there at Pounds Crossing, so we're going to have to work on that one in the next term of Council. Over this term of Council, 24 kilometres of sealed road have been rehabilitated. That’s another great achievement, and there's also going to be a new bridge over the Williams River at Clarence Town following the successful advocacy I referred to earlier.
The Mayor was very keen to make sure that the community was aware that the commitment of the entire council is important to those outcomes, including the Council staff, to who he recognised and he thanked, and he specifically also thanked the Deputy Mayor, Councilor Steve Low, for his support and willingness. He steps in when the Mayor is not available. It's a great partnership there. The Mayor also wanted to pass on thanks to all of the Councilors for their support over the term. And he thanked the community for the opportunity of being the Mayor for the past 4 1/2 years.
We’ve also got a couple of roadworks going on at the moment. In Clements Road, the Gresford to Clements Bridge over there at Gresford, works are continuing there. The council crews are doing some importing of pavement material and drainage works. Extended traffic delays are expected during that time because of the restricted width while those works are being undertaken, so just follow the instructions and the traffic signage up there and drive safely.
Stroud Hill Road, Dungog. What a great project, it’s progressing so well. Section three has now commenced, which is fantastic, and that section includes the Fosterton Road intersection. Please follow the traffic lights there. Don't go through the red lights, we're trying to manage those works in a safe manner. So please adhere to those safety restrictions. But again, there'll be some additional delays on that Fosterton Road leg. Works there include shoulder widening and earthworks. Please follow the signage and drive safely.
On that note, I think that'll probably wrap up the week and I wish everyone a great weekend. Don't forget to get up there to the Dungog Common and the UCI World Qualifier Pump Track Championships and have a great weekend.