Message from the Mayor: 27 October 2023
Published on 27 October 2023
Hello, I'm John Connors, the Mayor of Dungog shire, bringing you this week's Mayoral message.
During the week, the General Manager and I had an opportunity to meet with David Layzell, the member for Upper Hunter.
During the course of that meeting, it became apparent that the outstanding funding, which was announced prior to the state election, may shortly became available. That funding was $9.7 million, which dominantly was for the replacement of the suspension bridge at Gresford, an upgrade of the culverts in Hooke Street Dungog, and an upgrade of numerous river crossings throughout the shire.
Whilst the funding announcement was made before the election, the funding deed did not turn up and still hasn't. But it's suggested that the current government may imminently be going to make some announcement with respect to that funding. So we live hope, the downside of course, is that with delays like this, the cost goes up and there's great difficulty in delivering what was intended to be delivered in the first place.
Also speaking about funding and bridges, I mentioned previously that we were able to have a meeting with Senator O'Neill, the duty Senator for the Lyne electorate, a couple of weeks ago. In the course of that meeting, we met at the Brig O’ Johnston Bridge at Clarence Town, and the Senator advised that no decision had been made with respect to the federal funding for the replacement of that bridge.
Earlier on, we had been advised by Dr. David Gillespie, the Member for Lyne that the funding was secure.
The Senator however, was telling us this may or may not be the case as no decision had been made. So, we are still in a state of limbo. But what is becoming apparent is that there will be no increase in the funding from either the state or federal government, which may well require some redesign of a structure that meets the available funds and, of course, will probably diminish its service-ability for the residents, but that is a work in progress at the moment.
The welcome rain has caused the Waste Management Facility in Dungog to provide limited access to the tip face. Four wheel drive vehicles only can access the tip face at the moment. That will change of course as the ground dries out, but that's a small inconvenience for the much welcome rain.
The state government via the Minister for Regional Roads and Infrastructure, Jenny Aitchison, announced recently additional funding for road repairs, the quantum of that funding insofar as this shire is concerned is $1.845 million, which was contained in that announcement. We've now received further details of that and regrettably, it's not as grand as it seems. Whilst we will receive $1.84 million to be spent over the next four years, we're going to lose about $1.3 million in funding from programs that are being paused for the next four years. So on the positive side, the net benefit to Dungog shire is about $290,000, not $1.8 million as the announcement would suggest, but it's an increase albeit a very small one.
We are now less than 12 months away from the next local government elections which will take place on the 24th of September 2024. It's time I think for residents throughout the shire to consider making themselves available to stand for election as councillors or as mayor. There are two councillors for each of the three wards and then the mayor is elected by all of the electors throughout the shire.
So should anybody have an interest in becoming a member of council, please contact me or any other existing councillor or the General Manager. If you want any information about what's involved, there are numerous training sessions that are now available which are run by Local Government NSW, to give information to prospective councillors. So please come forward.
If you have any interest whatsoever, and I'm sure there are people throughout the shire who have a contribution to make, people who are perhaps unimpressed with some of the decisions that council has made in recent times, then now's your opportunity to think about putting yourself forward to be the decision makers after September 2024 for a period of four years.
So, with those few comments, I think that's it for me for this week. So, until next week, good luck and goodbye.