COMMUNITYCONNECT

PORT MACQUARIE OFFICE Corner of Lord & Burrawan Streets Port Macquarie, NSW 2444

WAUCHOPE OFFICE High Street Wauchope NSW, 2446

LAURIETON OFFICE Laurie Street Laurieton NSW, 2443

For more information contact Council on (02) 6581 8111 or council@pmhc.nsw.gov.au

www.pmhc.nsw.gov.au

IN THIS ISSUE • From the Mayor • Stingray Creek Bridge• What’s On Exhibition• Small Towns Sewerage Scheme Update• Lake Road Traffic Improvements• Footpath and Cycleway Program

Spraying to settle the dust after road grading works on the Maria River Road, North Shore

October 2014 Port Macquarie-Hastings Council Newsletter

MESSAGE FROM THE MAYOR Peter Besseling

Welcome to our new look Community Connect newsletter, which will provide readers with a regular update on Council activities in our Local Government Area. As always, the core business of Council is delivering infrastructure and services to our community.

Another major priority of Council’s is to develop and maintain a strong connection with the community. An open, two-way relationship allows the community to participate in the planning and decision-making process, which in turn assists Council to deliver better outcomes.

The mechanism Council uses to enable this to occur is called community engagement. There are quite a few ways Council ‘engages with the community’ to gather input and involvement in local decision making, each of which ensures no one member of the community is disadvantaged when it comes to ‘having a say’.

In March 2013, Council established the program ‘Engaging and Communicating With Our Community’. As part of the program, meet and greet sessions between the Councillors and communities of outlying rural townships are held providing an open forum for residents to speak face-to-face with Councillors.

By connecting with ratepayers through community engagement, Council is ensuring that it provides effective representation and an efficient use of community resources. This will allow us to continue to make sure that the Port Macquarie-Hastings area provides a sustainable, high quality of life for all.

The Small Towns Sewerage Scheme is a project that will see the delivery of reticulated sewerage services to the villages of Herons Creek, Beechwood, North Shore, Comboyne, Long Flat and Telegraph Point.

The construction of sewerage facilities for the village areas aligns with Council’s social focus to facilitate community growth through the provision of quality services, strategies and infrastructure as well as provide an improved environmental amenity for the betterment of the community.

The provision of sewerage facilities to the village areas is fully funded

and included each year in the works programme up to 2016/17 (proposed completion, September 2016).

The recently completed Beechwood sewerage system - which forms part of the Small Towns Sewerage Scheme - cost $3.2 million.

With Herons Creek and Beechwood complete, the remaining program is as follows: North Shore - Tender review underway. Comboyne, Long Flat and Telegraph Point - Concept design report to be prepared and presented to the community for comment prior to the commencement of the detailed design.

Council has made footpaths a top priority and allocated $500,000 for a footpath and cycleway program in the 2014-2015 Operational Plan, highlighting the importance being placed on infrastructure assets across the region.

Council is undertaking works with the aim of achieving as much as possible with the funds available. In addition to having a rolling prioritised list, the program is flexible enough to respond to external funding opportunities such as grants which would allow more work to be done.

The rolling program also allows for identification of works that may

require significant preconstruction activities that can be budgeted for, with completed designs, and ready to go once funding becomes available.

Following the program’s adoption in July this year, work on footpaths got off to a racing start with projects underway in Laurieton, Wauchope and Port Macquarie.

Footpaths completed so far include: the footpath between Castle and Bold streets in Laurieton, Bain and Cameron streets in Wauchope, Murray Street in Port Macquarie and Ocean Drive in North Haven.

SMALL TOWNS SEWERAGE SCHEME UPDATE

FOOTPATHS & CYCLEWAYS PROGRAM

Lake Road in Port Macquarie is set to become a safer road for commuters following a successful bid for ‘blackspot’ funding which will see $800,000 invested in the major arterial for traffic improvement measures at key intersections.

Council had been lobbying for grant funding to help address the significant vehicular safety issues at the intersections of Lake Road and Acacia Avenue, Chestnut Road and Blackbutt Road that drivers have been experiencing for years.

Council recently accepted $400,000 funding under the State Government’s

Blackspot Network and Safety Program which it will then match dollar-for-dollar in order to address vehicle crashes and safety issues on Lake Road.

The funding would enable Council to construct a roundabout at the intersection of Lake and Blackbutt roads, and a median strip off the roundabout at Blackbutt Road east of the Chestnut Road intersection for crash reduction and traffic flow.

The $400,000 funding, alongside Council’s own contribution of $400,000 meant that work could begin to address an ongoing and significant traffic issue on Lake Road.

The Stingray Creek Bridge project - a jointly funded venture between Port Macquarie-Hastings Council and the NSW State Government - is progressing following another important step with an Early Tender Involvement (ETI) workshop held in Port Macquarie.

The workshop - hosted by Council and facilitated by NSW Public Works - was held over two days earlier last month (4 and 5 September) and was attended by Council’s bridge designers OPUS International Pty Ltd and six short-listed construction companies.

The ETI process had been endorsed by the Stingray Creek Bridge Replacement

Project Steering Group to enable the tender process to commence ahead of the finalisation of detailed designs. The workshop involved both open and closed sessions about the bridge replacement project.

Involvement of all the tenderers prior to the issue of formal tender documentation would help expedite delivery of the bridge replacement project.

Council used a similar process when it was planning for upgrades to both the Lake Cathie-Bonny Hills Sewage Treatment Plant and the Dunbogan Sewage Treatment Plant.

SMALL TOWNS SEWERAGE SCHEME UPDATE LAKE ROAD TRAFFIC IMPROVEMENTS

WHAT’S ON EXHIBITION• Liveable Neighbourhoods - Town

Fringe

• Stingray Creek Bridge

• Disability Strategy

• Community Reference Group

• Greater Sancrox

• Councillor Expenses and Facilities Policy

PMHC Listening is one of the ways Council involves the community in decision making and is based on the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2) Spectrum as the accepted standard for undertaking community engagement.

The spectrum describes five levels of community engagement: Inform, Consult, Involve, Collaborate and Empower.

Inform: Keeping the community up to date about important information or updates about decisions, policies or projects.

Consult: Seeking community feedback about a proposal to inform the final decision.

Involve: Seeking community input on key aspects of a decision prior to a proposal being developed.

Collaborate: To partner with the community in developing ideas, plans and solutions to identified projects and issues.

Empower: Placing the decision making in the hands of the community.

Stay updated with outcomes from public exhibition documents or register now to have your say on current exhibition documents at www.pmhclistening.com.au.

FOOTPATHS & CYCLEWAYS PROGRAM STINGRAY CREEK BRIDGE

TASTINGS ON HASTINGSThe region’s premiere food festival returns to Port Macquarie’s Town Centre on Sunday, 26 October from 9am until 4pm.

This year’s theme is Our Story, Our Soul, Our Food which aims to embrace and celebrate the multicultural influences within our community.

Celebrity chef Peter Kuruvita, most well known for his SBS television shows ‘My Sri Lanka’, ‘Island Feast’ and his latest series ‘Mexican Fiesta’ will be this year’s special guest. Peter will be hosting cooking demonstrations for those wanting to learn some of his flavoursome trade secrets.

Cooking demonstrations, presented by PYE Provedores, will be held at the Fig Restaurant providing guests with an opportunity to watch Peter Kuruvita at work, while learning a few new tricks of the trade.

Demonstrations will be held at 11am and 1pm and entry is $10.

To check out local foodies stories and everything you need to know about the event visit www.tastingsonhastings.com.au

HELLO KOALAS PUBLIC SCULPTURE TRAILThe Hello Koalas Sculpture Project 2014-2015 is a signature cultural event for the Port Macquarie-Hastings region. As part of the project, 50 large scale koala sculptures, manufactured in fibreglass dot the landscape from the mountains to the sea to create an official Hello Koalas Public Sculpture Trail.

www.hellokoalas.com

garagesaletrail.com.au Register Now!

GARAGE SALE TRAILIt’s happening again, this year’s annual Garage Sale Trail kicks-off on Saturday, 25 October. Council’s support of the event is part of its waste education program aimed at reinforcing the goal of reducing waste and reusing items which might otherwise end up as landfill.

www.garagesaletrail.com.au

IRONMAN 70.3Incorporating the Australian Age Group Championship, IRONMAN 70.3 Port Macquarie remains one of the Asia-Pacific region’s leading, and most enduring, triathlon events and will soon be here, arriving on Sunday, October 19. The triathlon consists of a 1.9km swim, 90km bike and 21.1km run.

www.ironmanportmacquarie.com

www.pmhc.nsw.gov.au/events