Message from the Mayor: 28 June 2024

Published on 28 June 2024

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

This week saw an Extraordinary Council Meeting on Wednesday night. The purpose of the meeting was for Council to adopt its Budget and Operational Plan for the forthcoming financial year.

The plan was adopted and it contains an operating budget of $65.8 million with a capital works program of more than $31.7 million. The capital works program is dominantly roads and funding for the initial stages of the Clarence Town bridge.

The budget is in deficit to a relatively small degree, bearing in mind the total amount of $65.8 million. The deficit is there to enable funds to be available for council to engage consultants when necessary to support the planning department to enable development applications to be processed in a timely manner and to assist with strategic planning to enable various strategic planning actions that are outstanding to be concluded as quickly as possible, followed by an update of the local environment plan. So that's the reason for the deficit. If the council can recruit appropriate staff, those funds may not be required. But just to provide the funds to enable it to be a seamless engagement of contractors should that be necessary, the deficit is shown in the budget papers.

The week also regrettably saw a major issue arise yesterday, on Thursday, and that was an examination that took place of the bridge over the Paterson River at Gresford, the Swinging Bridge or Suspension Bridge. The routine inspection showed that there were significant structural failures on the bridge which resulted in its immediate closure.

That leaves the only access across the river as the river crossing and unfortunately at the moment due to recent rain, the river is up and the crossing is only available to 4WD drive vehicles and not ordinary motor vehicles.

Council took immediate action in addition to closing the bridge for the safety of residents and engaged expert consultants to come on-site yesterday to make a detailed analysis of the issue. It's anticipated that work will commence today Friday, the 28th of June, to rectify the problem.

No timeframe can be given now as to when the works will be completed but once works commence, there should be a clearer picture and information can be disseminated as to when the bridge might reopen. Council is well aware of the inconvenience and risks it creates to the residents on the other side of the river and that's the reason action was taken as quickly as it was and hopefully the problem can be resolved quickly.

Pedestrian access will remain available across the bridge. Access will be controlled during rectification works for the safety of pedestrians, but otherwise, pedestrian access will be available.

The river crossing is the subject of funding to replace the existing river crossing with a new bridge. That funding was announced by the former state government, by the former Minister for Local Roads and Infrastructure, back in about March of 2023. Regrettably, that funding wasn't formalised prior to the government losing office, despite council’s repeated requests, and since the new government has come to power there have been meetings between myself and the minister and the General Manager and representatives of TransportfNSW on a very regular basis, trying to resolve the issue of the funding for this particular project. It had reached the point where arrangements had been made before the bridge problems for a meeting in Canberra next Wednesday with the head of the National Emergency Management Authority, one of the funding bodies, for the funding as I said was announced by the former state government. So Council has been pursuing this actively over the last 15-16 months since the state government made the announcement and will continue to do so to try and get the funds to replace the river crossing with an appropriate structure.

Still with roads, roadworks continue on Stroud Hill, continue on Durham Road at Gresford/East Gresford and continue in Abelard Street in Dungog, where drainage works are being undertaken at the moment. Allyn River Road, Stroud Hill, and Durham Road are all under traffic control and there'll be some inconvenience to road users whilst those works continue next week and beyond.

In Dungog Showground, works continue on the preparation for the construction of a new amenities building and those works will continue throughout next week.

At Paterson at Tucker Park, works on the internal road within the park are continuing. Those works were significantly delayed as a result of the wet weather and unfortunately the forecast doesn't look good for the coming week when rain is forecast for the entire week. None of that helps with roadworks.

Next week, the General Manager and I are heading to Canberra for the annual Australian Local Government Association Conference and then on Friday, the National General Assembly of Local Government. During the week I will be participating with other members of other member councils of the Hunter Joint Organisation in attending upon various Ministers pursuing funding for various proposals within the Hunter Region.

These include the necessary funding for the export facilities at Newcastle Airport. I'm participating in that group as I see great benefit to the Dungog shire once the opportunity exists to export fresh food directly from Newcastle to Singapore and then into Asia. I see that providing great opportunities for farmers within the Shire and the introduction of the micro abattoir, should that proceed, is another part of that whole program. But there are many other areas where I think this area could get on the bandwagon once that facility is established.

Also during the week, on behalf of the Hunter Joint Organisation and the 10 composite councils I have been asked to be the mover of various motions before the conference. Those motions are ones that affect us, such as a reform of the Grant Funding Process for Local Government, a general reform of Road Funding for Local Government, Housing and the Economic Evolution of Former Mining Lands, all of which are significant issues for the hunter at large, but also for the Dungog LGA. So it's a privilege to have been asked to participate in those motions at the conference.

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