Message from the Mayor: 9 August 2024

Published on 09 August 2024

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

On Wednesday of this week, Council held an extraordinary meeting to consider tenders for the last three sections of Clarence Town Road to be rehabilitated. The funding for these roadworks has been outstanding for many years; it came in part many years ago, was lost, and then came back again, fortunately.

The tenders were accepted, and contracts were awarded to the successful tenderer, so hopefully, we will see the last three sections completed in the very near future. That will bring to an end a $20 million project of the rehabilitation of Clarence Town Road from Dungog through to the shire boundary and in fact, through to Raymond Terrace. Part of that funding was shared with Port Stephens Council for them to do the stretch from the Shire boundary through to Raymond Terrace. So it's a major culmination of works on a very major road within the Shire.

Next Tuesday, at Clarence Town is the community consultation for the Clarence Town Structural Plan and Master Plan.

I encourage the community to take part in this community consultative process. It's your opportunity to have your say as to how the greater Clarence Town area should be developed in the future. It's a plan that will probably last the next 30 years if it's properly developed. It will look to develop not only the urban area and the main street, but also the surrounding rural areas for the provision of appropriate housing developments now and into the future.

Two sessions are being held at the Clarence Town School of Arts. The first one runs from 1pm to 3pm, and the second one is from 5pm to 7pm.

Hopefully, they'll both collectively cater to the community and its limited time. I do ask as many as possible to come along—this is your chance! The Councillors have been briefed, and they've had a chance. The Council staff have had the opportunity to have input, and this is you, the community, your chance to have your say as to what should be included in the plan for the future.

Last week, there were also developments with respect to the Martins Creek Quarry appeal process. The matter came before the Land and Environment Court on Monday of last week, before the registrar, and as the compulsory conciliation process was unable to reach a resolution, the matter has now been set down for hearing before the court. The hearing dates allocated to the matter are from the 17th to the 28th of March 2025. I know that's a long way away. But that's the court process in NSW at all levels.

Council considered the matter again at its last ordinary meeting and resolved to maintain the position that had previously been adopted and has continually adopted throughout this process, and that is that all quarry material, apart from local deliveries, should go by rail. Council supports the quarry in principle, it's only the transport of material that council has a major issue with and realises the destructive nature of carting huge amounts of material through the village of Paterson and all the way down to the New England Highway at Maitland, the destructive nature of that on the community, and particularly the village of Paterson.

This is just a reminder that the Local Government Elections are on the 14th of September, and nominations close on the 14th of August at 12 noon. So if you're contemplating nominating for council, you have until the 14th of August to do so.

The whole community has until the 14th of September to consider those who have nominated and consider your vote. Please do turn up to vote on that day, or during the pre-poll period during the week prior. But I'll say more about that as it gets closer.

So that is it from me for this week. So until next week, goodbye and good luck.