THERE have been a huge number of subcommittees with Council and at the February meeting Councillors will be voting on a restructure. There are two things I’d appreciate your thoughts on: the town-based committees proposed and a roads committee.
Town-based committees
To give better voice to each town in the Shire it is proposed that each major town have it’s own Council committee, which I think is a great idea. There are specific issues for each town and town-based committees will mean those issues can be given the time and focus they deserve.
But I do question how residents feel about the town-based structure proposed and wonder if we do need a couple more…
At the moment it is proposed that there are committees for:
- Aberdeen
- Merriwa
- Murrurundi
- Scone
However, I raised if we should also have two more committees, which may meet quarterly:
- Ellerston, Moonan, Gundy and Rouchel
- Cassilis
My current thinking is that residents in Ellerston-Rouchel may not feel their issues will be given the localised focus if they were part of the Scone committee and Cassilis residents have often said they feel even with Merriwa they are not heard as much as they would like.
Currently the Council is doing community consultation and they have been broken down into the areas of: Aberdeen, Cassilis, Merriwa, Moonan, Murrurundi and Scone and I think that this does reflect a fairer representation. BUT if the residents of Cassilis / Ellerston-Rouchel are comfortable in being part of the Merriwa / Scone committees then it would have my support. I’d also be interested to hear from Parkville/Wingen residents as to if they would want a quarterly meeting for their villages.
So I’d like to hear what the residents of these towns would like, before I vote on the matter.
Roads Committee
I’ve also proposed a specific roads committee. My thinking is that it is consistently the number one issue that is raised by residents across the Shire and a dedicated Roads Committee could have a representative from each major town/village to represent the interests of their town/village and work collaboratively to fairly understand the needs across the whole Shire. While the budget for roads can’t be changed at this point, if we start the committee now, by the time budget is being allocated again, the committee could be up to speed with the issues, constraints and opportunities for roads and be in an informed position to give Council practical advice.
Road issues could still be raised through the town-based committees, but a dedicated committee would ensure a holistic approach to roads across the Shire and the time for committee members to dig deeper and understand the broader issues and solutions.
Again, I’d like to hear if you think a dedicated roads committee would be worthwhile?
Kind Regards, Liz
Cr Elizabeth Flaherty
M: 0414 552 474
E: cr.flaherty@upperhunter.nsw.gov.au
Elizabeth
Being a Cassilis resident and the number of issues in Cassilis at the moment I believe CEF should have a seperate committee.
Once again a representative for Cassilis on the roads committee would also be great q
Bunnan?
Not sure…where do you think it should be? With the current proposed structure it would be Scone or Merriwa, but would it fit with any other town? Moonan, Ellerston, Gundy and Rouchel could go in together, any ideas for Bunnan? It definitely needs representation, but not sure if it should be a standalone committee. What do you think would work?
Liz, not sure Rouchel fits with Ellerston, Moonan, Gundy. There’s quite a few km between them. Where would they meet. Bunnan is in the same boat. And considering internet services are not great in some areas zoom meeting would be difficult as well.
Something needs to happen with roads. Where I live on Ringwood Road Merriwa council has resealed the best part of the road where as worst bits just keep getting worst with pot holes that you just can not miss around the Kellick Creek area and it has been like this well before Xmas.
Hi Chris, give me a call (0414 552 474) or email (cr.flaherty@upperhunter.nsw.gov.au) and I’d be happy to help lodge action requests etc.
Some representatives from village areas is essential or we may be ignored
Road situation is dire
I don’t know where to start
Hi Bernard, in terms of the villages, what do you think would work best? Would some have stand alone or combined? Or would we make sure there is a representative from that village on the nearest town committee?
Is the proposal that these community committees would eliminate the need for some of the council 355 Committees? I would prefer Council worked on a more effective communications and community engagement model than setting up more committees. Cassilis has the Cassilis District Development Group (that has a roads sub committee) that works with Council on community issues. I cannot see the benefit of duplicating this community organisations, even though the CDDG’s scope is more than council issues. Let’s not add another bureaucratic layer for the community to sift through. I suggest Council work efficiently and effectively within existing frameworks. Regular face to face community consultations and answering community correspondence in a timely manner wouldn’t go astray.
The committees first and foremost must have some external (Independant) members on there, outside the realms of local government.
Just a suggestion but I suspect that most of the localities out of town have Progress Associations who would be happy to work closely with the Council. Perhaps a regular meeting with the a council rep would save setting up a new system.
I would be happy to be on the road committee for the scone area, please put my name forward.
13.3.2022
My results on road repair in the scone area are being referred to “THE STAFF” of council.
And I am very disappointed the way the proposed road committee was defeated in council.
So how do I put my road upgrade requests in to get results?
The traffic on Hunter Road from Moonan Flat to Ellerston and Glenbrook is atrocious. I have written to the council and Barnaby Joyce but not a thing has happened. We are chocking in dust.