Message from the Mayor: 24 November 2023

Published on 24 November 2023

Well, good morning, everybody. The Mayor can't make it to the video message today so I'm doing it for him, thanks for joining us.

I've got a number of things that the Mayor would have gone through with you this morning. The first one we'll talk about is the Australia Day nominations that close today. We have received a few so thank you to all those people who've taken the time and effort to submit those to Council. Nominations do close today so if you're thinking about putting a nomination in, get it in as soon as you can. We will accept nominations up until Friday next week at 4.30pm when the committee does meet to consider those nominations for the Australia Day Awards.

We've updated our website to also include an online form. So if you're having trouble emailing the form, you can click on the online form and it will automatically go into Council's system and make it a bit easier for you. So if you're going to put your nominations in, get them in as soon as you can and if you can't, make sure you get them in by next Friday 4.30pm. Thank you.

We do have some consultation going on at the moment in relation to Dowling Street in terms of car parking and street furniture. So Council is currently calling for feedback for this car parking and street furniture and the plans so this is the chance to have a say. I know that in consultation with local businesses and the Chamber of Commerce. So if you're interested have a look at that head to council website or our Facebook page and that will have all the details for you. The community consultation closes at 5pm on the 15th of December.

In terms of Clarence Town Bridge and the federal government's Infrastructure Investment Review, which it's been a busy time for Council, the mayor and I have been busy lobbying ministers over the last several months. We were pleased that the Federal Government Infrastructure Review was completed and the Minister for Infrastructure and Local Government, The Honorable Catherine King, did actually announce confirmation of the original funding for Clarence Town Bridge being $8.8 million plus an additional $781,000. The Mayor did advise everybody last week of that. So this week we've been busy writing to all the ministers who actually supported our advocacy along the way and to thank them for their support. So that included Minister King, Senator Deborah O'Neill, who came to visit last month, or the month before I should say, we also met with Senator Ross Kadell who was very supportive as well.

We'll also be sending a letter to Kristy McBain who is the Assistant Minister to Minister King to thank her also for her support when she met them here earlier this year to support the project.

In other news, it's good to see Council delivering its projects. Another one that people have been anxiously waiting for was the Camping to Common Trail. That was a project that was funded by over $200,000 from the Bushfire Local Economic Recovery Fund. It's also supported through Dungog Regional Tourism and Local Land Services who provided fencing and other financial support to the project.

That project is likely to be open shortly, most likely to be mid-December. We're just waiting on confirmation but we do understand that the Minister is interested in coming up so we'll keep you tuned and give you more information before that happens.

What would also be great is to let you know that Stroud Hill Road, which has also been anxiously awaited by many in the community and in the government for upgrade works, it's pleasing to announce that those works are now out on Tender Link so they've gone out for tender and we're encouraging all of those companies who are interested in building that road for Council to come forward and lodge a tender. Those tenders do close early in the new year and we hope to get a report up to Council in February following the assessment of the tenders that we receive. So that is good news. There's been a lot of, I guess, contact with the council from various levels of government in the community on the condition of that road, not just on the Dungog Council side but also on the Midcoast side, but as you know, we're only responsible for the Dungog side and we're very pleased to see that project out for tender.

Well, that's all the news I have for you today. I hope you have a lovely weekend and next week the Mayor will be back to give you his weekly message. Thanks very much.