The Local Government Act Taskforce is considering major changes to Councils. A host of responsibilities may be taken away from Councils. Public consultation is planned to be reduced. There might be half-term elections for Councillors. The Ward system could be abolished.
Author Archives: terrypfogarty
Promoting Better Practice in Local Government
1. The Council should prepare and implement whole of council policy and procedure to ensure all of its legislative and regulatory obligations are met on an ongoing basis.
2. The Council should better align its ‘Policy for the Payment and the Provision of facilities for the Mayor and Councillors’ with the ‘Guidelines for the payment of expenses and the provision of facilities for Mayors and Councillors in NSW’,
Division of Local Government, Department of Premier and Cabinet, October 2009.
3. The Council is encouraged to continue work to better resource the individual activities of its Delivery Program.
4. The Council is encouraged to strengthen its Operational Plan by the including target and baseline information in the measures and targets.
5. The Council should ensure that future revisions to the Asset Management Strategy and Long Term Financial Plan adequately address the issue of asset maintenance and renewal to prevent a cumulative impact on the Council’s financial sustainability.
6. In proceeding with the option of applying for a special levy (Special Rate Variation), the Council is encouraged to use the guidelines that the Division has prepared to assist councils in this area.
7. The Council is encouraged to continue to work toward reducing the average time it takes to assess development applications.
Telstra Tower in Nelson Street
PROPOSED LICENCE OF NELSON STREET ROAD RESERVE CHATSWOOD TO TELSTRA
RESOLUTION
1. That Council enter into a Licence with Telstra for a portion of Road Reserve adjacent to 14 Nelson Street, Chatswood for the purposes of telecommunications infrastructure for a term of five (5) years with a starting Licence fee of $33,000 per annum plus GST.
That Council notes that Telstra will make available an expert to inform Councillors about EME upon the lodgement of the Development Application.
That, in the event the tower is erected, a term of the licence is to be that Telstra monitors the total emissions from the transmission antenna and any other providers and reports to Council and the EPA annually.
38 Albert Avenue
PROPOSED CONSTRUCTION OF A MIXED USE DEVELOPMENT COMPRISING HOTEL, INTEGRATIVE MEDICAL HOSPITAL FACILITY, RETAIL AND RESIDENTIAL UNITS – AMENDED PLANS AND DOCUMENTATION.
Councillor Saville moved: That, having regard to the advice of the Environmental Services Director by email to Councillors dated 22 July 2013, in regard to sustainability features of the building, no submission need be made to the JRPP on this matter.
Friendly Cities
Council recently considered a proposal for Councillors and staff to visit towns in Italy. Council had already entered into a Global Friendship/Sister Cities agreement with Guardia Sanframondi, a small hamlet in the mountains behind Naples. There is a relatively large community in Willoughby who migrated from this area. It was also proposed that Councilors and staff meet with Vetrona while they were in Italy.
The plan was that the Mayors costs be met by Council and everyone else would need to pay their own way. There was debate on this matter before it was decided that only the trip to Guardia Sanframondi would be endorsed by Council.
Clr. Mustaca is planning on going on the trip (at his own expense). The motion was moved by the two remaining West Ward Councillors (Mustaca and Saville)
Rates Hike?
The 26,000 plus ratepayer families in the Willoughby Council area will be out of pocket $300 a year (on top of their $1300 -average house- rates) every year for the next 14 years according to figures in the the Long Term Financial Plan of the Willoughby City Council – a total of $4200 per ratepayer family. Up until a few years ago Willoughby Council met all its obligations without accumulating annual losses – then along came the sell-off of assets to pay for The Concourse, plus the heavy debt all rate payers carry for that building which Mayor Reilly told a public forum when it was mooted “It will not cost ratepayers a cent to run”.
Questions
Station Bedlam?
Concerns have been raised about the impacts at Chatswood Railway Station when the North West Rail Link is completed. The Link will run from Chatswood to Rouse Hill.
Trains will run every five minutes during the peak. This may mean that there will be an extra 12 trains per hour using Chatswood Station.
Of more concern is the fact that the trains terminate at Chatswood. This means that all passengers have to alight and change trains at the same time as commuters are trying to board trains for the city. In addition, the new service will have new single deck trains which are able to carry about 50 per cent more people than double deck trains..
Add it up, more trains, more people more often could be a recipe for disaster.
On another front, the tunnels being bored for the Link will not accommodate the existing double-decker train sets – short term thinking ?
Alienation of public land
Recently there was a matter finalised by Willoughby Council. It concerned the way that the Northern Suburbs Tennis Association had dealt with land leased from Council. Basically, the Association sub-leased the land to a third party (Love’n Duece). This situation had been ongoing for many years.
In West Ward there is at least one parcel of public land in a similar situation. This is the Tennis Courts at 52 Fullers. These courts are leased from Council but sub-leased to a tennis operator.
Another large parcel of public land that has been alienated for many years covers three holes of the Chatswood Golf Club in front of the O.H. Reid Reserve. Residents have been requesting reasonable access (at least around the perimeter of the course) for many years. These request have fallen on deaf ears.
Hopefully, when the lease is next reviewed the wider community good will be appropriately considered.
Acoustic Laboratory
THE long-running saga over the National Acoustic Laboratory site could be resolved, with Willoughby Council and residents set to support the latest plans.
For the past seven years there has been debate over the redevelopment of the site at 126 Greville St, Chatswood with the council rejecting an original proposal of 14 residential flats with 230 units.
Two years ago, amended plans on the bushland setting that included 14 buildings again, but with 10 less units was also rejected by the council.
But the council and residents are set to support the latest plans for the site, which will be determined by the Joint Regional Planning Panel.
The new plans cap the dwellings at 60, with the building heights to be two or three storeys.
Local resident Daniel Cumming said: “This compromise is the best deal that has been put forward.”
But residents wanted to ensure public access to open space was retained.
The council supports an “adaptive reuse” of the existing buildings on the site, but conceded the latest plans “represent an acceptable compromise”.
A council report also states the traffic created by the latest plans would be “considerably less” than previous proposals
NORTH SHORE TIMES
Chatswood West Ward History 