28 August - Ordinary

Good evening everyone. Welcome to our meeting tonight. I'll hand over to the General Manager for the preliminaries.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'd like to begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land, the Darug people, their elders past and present. Members of the public attending the meeting are advised that in the event of an emergency, you will be asked to proceed in an orderly manner to the nearest exit, following the guidance of our wardens. I would also like to advise members of the public that in accordance with Clause 6.3.1 of the Code of Meeting Practice, meetings of the Council are recorded. In the terms of the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act, this may involve the recording of personal information provided at the time of the meeting. The recordings are made to assist staff in compiling the minutes of the meeting and to enable the podcasting of Council meetings.

The provision of any information that is recorded is voluntary. If any person does not wish to be recorded, they should not address or request to address the meeting. The recordings may be made available to other persons where such access is in accordance with the relevant regulations, and the recordings are stored on Council's record management system. For the benefit of those persons who will be addressing the Council tonight, it is expected that you will refrain from making any insult, allegation or personal reflection against any person present or not at this meeting. This request relates both to your address to Council and any answers given in response to questions from councillors. Finally, it is also requested that if any person in the Council chambers has a mobile phone, They either turn it off or turn it to silent.

Thank you. Thank you.

No apologies. Everyone's here. Any declarations of interest? Councillor Rasmussen

Madam Mayor, your Mayoral minute, I have a less than significant non-pecuniary interest.

Thank you. Councillor Richards. Item 218, significant non-pecuniary. Thank you.

Councillor Calvert. Item 203, significant pecuniary interest, and item 212, a significant interest. Okay,

Thank you. 212 is on block, but I'll get you to read that through before we go into block.

We'll move on to item subject

To public address. Oh, sorry, Councillor Kotlash. I have a significant non-pecuniary interest in item 203. Thank you. Councillor

Conolly. I also have a significant non-pecuniary interest in item 203.

Okay. Right. Thank you. Okay, well, item 203. Oh, Councillor Reynolds. I

Think I have a less than significant non-pecuniary interest in 203 as well.

Okay. Who'd have thought a Mayoral minute would bring up such interest? Okay.

So we'll move on to items with public address, and the first one is item 203, so we'll go around. Oh, sorry, confirmation of minutes from last time first, then

We'll move in that.

Moved Councillor Rasmussen, seconded Councillor Conolly. All those in favour?

Aye.

The motion is carried. Moving on to item 203, we'll start with Councillor Rasmussen. If everyone can read on there what their interest is, and anyone who has to leave can leave for the debate. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Madam Mayor, I have a less than significant non-pecuniary interest because I'm the chairman of Hawkesbury Community Radio Station, one of the broadcast licences broadcasting in the Hawkesbury LGA.

Thank you, Councillor Rasmussen. Councillor Calvert.

Madam Mayor, I have a significant interest because I'm associated with one of the radio stations mentioned.

Thank you, Councillor Calvert . Councillor Kotlash. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I have a significant non-pecuniary interest in, as I am associated with one of the radio stations. Thank you, Councillor Conolly.

I have a significant non-pecuniary interest in item 203 because I was until quite recently associated with one of the radio station organisations. Okay,

Thank you. So those who are leaving.

We have one speaker on the item, and the speaker is Brian Smith.

Oh, sorry, Councillor Reynolds, did you have one too?

Only in as much as that it mentions the RFS, and I'm a member of the RFS, that's all.

Okay, so a less than significant

Non-pecuniary

Yes, I don't think that. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Smith.

Madam Mayor, Councillors, ladies and gentlemen, I am speaking in support of the Mayoral Minute on behalf of the NRBCAA and the Kurrajong Forum Executive. We would like to update you on how resilience is being fostered in our community. The Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal has been considering the possibility of extending its program to urban areas and has selected an area on the North Coast and Windsor as possible study areas. Council agreed, and established community organisations were asked to submit expressions of interest and proposals documenting their capability to be evaluated and undertake the study. NRBCAA and Kurrajong Forum were successful. To date, the program has been largely facilitated by the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal, and their authority and reputation has been most useful in enlisting the attention of key emergency personnel at meetings.

We thank the Mayor for her support and participation in these meetings.

Purely local work by us has demonstrated that exhortations from the State Emergency Service and Rural Fire Services have fallen on deaf ears. In Kurrajong and Bowen Mountain, there is an awareness of the bushfire risk,

But there is little understanding of the loss of services that will result from flooding. In North Richmond, very few residents have experienced flood, and even amongst those who have, there is a belief that it cannot happen again. There is little appreciation of the bushfire risk from ember attack. Nowhere is there an understanding of what services are available in an emergency and widespread erroneous belief that there are no police, ambulance or fire services positioned in the North Richmond area during an emergency. We believe that an informed community is a safe community and that this can be achieved only by one-on-one communication. This can be achieved with the help from churches, schools, service organisations, etc., and we would aim to enlist that support in due time.

The veil of secrecy surrounding emergency plans needs to be lifted. We will be pursuing this at our next meeting on September the 13th. Given the uncertainty over the FM services provided by Hawkesbury Radio, we would remind Councillors that the official emergency service coverage is on ABC 702 on the AM band, which should provide better coverage. We suggest that any booklet be prepared with input from the local community and not the generic FRRR, which focuses on problems that arise 12 months after the disaster.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr Smith. Are you happy to take questions? I am. Any questions for Mr Smith?

Councillor Ross.

Thank you, Mayor.

Mr Smith, the work that you've joined with the Kariong Forum, is that as a means of

Yourselves trying to better communicate with the community at your level, or are you seeking... For the support from Council

We have had no problem in communicating with. We did have a task where we didn't feel we were attracting senior emergency personnel, and FRR supported us enormously in that, and in that way they attracted the attention. As far as getting

Attention within the community, we've had

No problems in communicating with people. They seem to be very willing to talk, if that is the thrust of your question.

Thank you, Mr Smith. Any further questions? No further questions. Thank you. That was our only speaker on that item, so I will move the mayoral minute as in the business paper, but I will include in point one, after consultation with, I'll add in the local community, which would be what we would do anyway, but I'll specify that in there. So if we could add the words local community after local emergency services, perhaps, comma and local community. I'll just speak briefly because it's quite clear what this mayoral minute is about, and it's simply to move forward trying to address a couple of issues that currently exist within the community. The first one is based on an initiative that I came across from Wollondilly Council, which is a quite basic guide.

It's with one of the attachments, and the aim is to tailor that to our area and specifically add the information that is relevant to our area that may not be included in other council areas. So, for example, things such as checking your domestic water supply to ensure you have adequate water if you're on tank water, and also to have ready for firefighting purposes. And any other specifically local things which Mr Smith identifies, there are a number of very locally specific areas of resilience that we must build and that we need to work towards. I've already spoken to the SES and some of the government agencies about this during our flood committee discussions and through the resilience building initiatives that we are party to.

And they have thought it's a very good idea. The aim, of course, would be to provide each household with one of these guides, which would be a ready reference for people in the event of any form of emergency. And the second point in the Mayoral Minute is to investigate any funding options. Through current initiatives, there are various opportunities to access funds, so we must utilise any of these funds to the best of our advantage to strengthen our resilience in our community. And for example, at St Albans, they are using battery-operated radios because they have a mobile black spot. And so people there have to rely on that for information during fires and so on. There's a need for our communications to be guaranteed, or as much as can be, during any time of emergency.

And this came to light in the fires that were down in the Tathra region, where there were issues with power outages, loss of communication, and people having difficulty in accessing the very local information to know exactly what they should do in their particular area. So currently in the Hawkesbury, we have a situation where the community radio is divided up between three broadcasters. My point in writing to the licensing authority, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, is to urge them to settle the outstanding issues with the radio stations so that we can be assured that we've got a functioning community radio, because a lot of people turn to that in times of seeking information.

And this came to light in the very recent fires that we had the week before last, when people turned to the radio to get that information and it wasn't coming through whichever one was broadcasting on that day. And there also is not a central contact point for those community radio stations, and we were notified at Council that people were having trouble getting the information. And even though it wasn't a council issue, we were putting it on our Facebook and so on. But some people have become reliant on turning to their local radio. And I take on board what Mr Smith said, that ABC 702 is also a reliable source, and it's broadcast in the AM bandwidth, so it is reliable. But when there's a lot of fires or things on, it can take a long time, or floods, it can take a long time to get to your specific local area when they're broadcasting a statewide program, which is why local community radio is so important.

I'm not suggesting that we have any opinion on who should be the broadcaster, merely that we call on the licensing authority to settle it so that there is some certainty and consistency for the messaging getting out to our community. So that's basically what it says. There's a copy of the Wollondilly Guide, which, as you can see, has things about advice of how people should prepare for things, pages to fill in contact numbers, and just a really general ready reference. And we often forget that sometimes when there is an emergency occurring, you can easily forget some very basic information. So it doesn't hurt to have it at hand so you can refer to it if the need arises. So I'll open the floor to debate and any further discussion.

Councillor Wheeler.

Thanks, Madam Mayor. One of the things that we've been discussing on the Floodplain Risk Management Committee is the poor understanding of people in the LGA of the impacts of flood, and we know that more than 60% of our residents are new to the LGA and have never experienced a decent flood, and so they're quite poorly prepared for what a flood will look like and the impacts on them. And certainly some of the discussions on social media show that people are actually quite unaware of the risks of flood to their own properties. I think we're much better at dealing with fire. The Rural Fire Service has been really proactive in getting communities to organise around their streets and their towns, and I don't think we've done the same thing about flood.

But even people who are outside the one in 100 are unaware that they won't be able to get access to various places, that things like they'll lose their electricity, that in some places that means that they'll lose access to water, and in several of our towns west of the river that they'll lose access to sewer as well. And so people need to be prepared right down to these things. It's not just about dealing with— With not being able to get across the bridge to go to work, it's a much bigger issue than that, and they need a reliable means of getting information. We also know from elsewhere that the research evidence shows that people are much more likely to respond to a local information source, and that's where both council and its relationship with the SES and also with community radio is really powerful.

So it does take a long time if you've got a number of problems happening to sit and listen to the long list of potential problems that the ABC might rattle through. And then people are very unlikely to evacuate unless it's a local voice and a local face telling them that it's time to go. They don't listen to someone from the city or somewhere else. They want local information.

We also know that we're going to have increasing unstable weather incidents. So this is becoming increasingly important. Who would have thought that we would have bushfires in August, and yet here we are. And we're sitting in a record drought. So we rely heavily on local radio. We have lots of places that are internet black spots, and you don't have to go as far as at Auburns not to be able to get decent internet services or even decent phone services. Now I've got friends who live in Bligh Park who don't have proper mobile reception in the middle of Bligh Park. That's an embarrassment normally, but it's a disaster waiting to happen in times of a flood or a fire.

Thank you, Councillor Wheeler. Further discussion? Councillor Reynolds.

Yeah, just a quick one, Madam Mayor. I think it's critical that there is a reliable source of information during an emergency. In previous bushfires, the local radio station has played an incredibly important part, and I think that at a time where the whole community is tuned into 89.9 on the FM band.

Other sources of information, people, you know, nowadays are turning to Facebook, which is, as we all know, like predominantly opinion and hearsay, especially some of the major Facebook pages. So I think it's critical that we get the Australian Communications and Media Authority to sort that situation out up there and just give us one community radio licence. I wouldn't like to think what's going to happen this summer without any rain, and I wouldn't like to think what's going to happen if people are at home and, as you say, on battery-powered, battery-powered radio, and they need information and they turn to a radio station and they get a podcast from somewhere downtown or something. So I think it's very important that that's sorted out as soon as we can, or perhaps even in an emergency, that there is some kind of provision for someone to be there 24 hours a day.

Thank

You.

Thank you, Councillor Reynolds. Any further discussion? No further discussion. No real need for right of reply. Just thank you for those supporting comments, and I'm sure we'll be updating on whatever comes out of the Mayoral Minute. So I'll put it to the vote. All those in favour? Against? The motion is carried. Our next item.

Item is item 2.06. We have one speaker, Beatrice Insausti. Oh, sorry, people back in from who were outside. Councillors, just a moment. Councillors Calvert, Kotlash and Connolly. Ah , thank you. Just a minute, Beatrice.

Thank you.

What are they doing? Here they come

Thank you. Madam Mayor,

Councillors. I just want

To wait for whatever this is.

Okay. Madam Mayor, Councillors, Council staff, firstly I'd like to thank this Council for deferring the Peel Park Master Plan and referring it back for community consultation. This was the first time that the community of North Richmond was allowed to actually be involved in the consultation. I would like to also thank the Council staff that were involved in those meetings. The outcome is far better than the original proposed Master Plan. The NRDCAA is happy for this draft Master Plan to go to public exhibition, and I hope that Council continues to involve the NRDCAA and the community as this Master Plan goes forward.

Thank you. Are you happy to take questions? I am. Any questions, Councillors?

No questions. Thank you. That was the only speaker on that item. Councillor Connelly, seconder?

Move that.

Councillor Rasmussen. Move, Councillor Connelly, seconded Councillor Rasmussen. Councillor Connelly.

I'll just briefly, Madam Mayor, that we've had a briefing on this. It looks like a good plan, certainly good enough for a draft to go on exhibition and see that people are happy with it. But so far the community feedback that's been reported to us has all been good.

Thank you. Further discussion? Councillor Rasmussen. Yeah, thank you,

Madam Mayor. Madam Mayor, as the speaker said, the input from the community has been, I think, quite outstanding now, and I think the process, it sort of stumbled a bit at the beginning, and I don't think people were terribly happy with the outcome, but I think we got there in the end, which was good. Council staff, councillors working with the community, and what a good result can be achieved by that. And I think that should be a bit of a model for future such major developments in public parks. And I think there will be, well, we'll see what the comments out of the consultation exhibition period turns up, but I think most people can live with what has been proposed, and I think at the end of the day that will certainly be a focal point for a lot of people west of the river in that particular area and beyond. So I think we can look forward to hopefully a very nice park.

Thank you, Councillor Rasmussen. Further discussion? Councillor Calvert.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. As you know, I've expressed a few concerns about the community consultation process that we undertook for this park. I think the second round of community consultation was a vast improvement on the first, but I think we still need to consider the way we go about our community consultation. I know we do have a consultation strategy or policy, but I think that's been around for quite some time and maybe we need to think about updating it. My biggest concern was that the demographics of the people that we approached or accessed tended to be not very wide. We saw parts of the community, but not all the community. And I'm just wondering whether the general manager has any information about whether we plan to update the community consultation process.

Mr Conroy.

I did have a conversation with Councillor Calvert about this. Some councils actually have a regime in place where the consultation program has got to ensure that the respondents are reflective of the demographics. I've worked in councils where that's happened in the past, and if you've got a population where there's a lot of young people, you've got to make sure that you consult a lot of young people and get that feedback from the total demographic mix. And I think that's a good practice, and I'd be happy to take that on board in any review of our engagement framework.

Question, Madam Mayor. Does the general manager think that would be assisted by adding something to this recommendation to that effect?

Mr Conroy.

I think we've got on the record that we want to review the consultation strategy, and I think unless there's any sort of— Contrary view, we should be trying to incorporate something that ensures we get that demographic mix. So I'm happy for him to add something and pass that.

But you're also happy either way, so we'll just leave it. Okay, thank you.

Further discussion? Councillor Richards.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. As we know, it's important to make sure that all stakeholders have their say, and I think this community consultation has been outstanding in terms of what it has delivered for people who live around the area and have wanted more of a say. However, as people may well be aware, one of my roles is being Council's representative on the Sports Council, so I think it's fair that when we are discussing parks and recreational facilities that encompass sporting things, that the Sports Council is able to have their voice at the table. After consulting with them today, they have come back and said that—I understand that this is only going to public exhibition, and they will be making a submission, obviously, in that regard.

However, it is disappointing that the multi-purpose netball and basketball courts have been done away with. So that is something that, from a sporting perspective, is something that is a little bit disappointing. However, the biggest concern they have, and I want to put this to the General Manager just to confirm, is the lighting—what we're putting out in this document, the lighting is being turned off at 8 p.m. Is that correct? Mr Conroy.

I think the plan of management talks about the lighting going off at 8.30. The primary purpose—

I've been flicking through and I can't find it. That's why I'm just double checking.

It talks about not wanting to spill into neighbouring properties, but I was trying to find the exact time.

I thought from what was said at the consultation that it was something relative to the fact it was for junior sporting, so if that has a time connected to

It, I don't know. It does. Well, it does. From the Sports Council themselves, they've said today that rugby league training is from five to nine on Tuesdays and Thursday nights. If the hours of floodlight are decreased, they will need to train on more days to make sure they're fulfilling the required number of training hours. It doesn't mean that they're training up until 9 p.m., but they need the lights on up until 9 p.m. to make sure that if the training does end at 8, they're still getting back to their cars. Or if it does end at 8:30, they're still getting back to their cars safely. So there's not that— there's a little bit of extra time. That's all, yeah.

So look, just to clarify, the objective of the plan of management and the master plan was to identify this park as primarily junior sporting facility. And the idea was that the hours of illumination and the design of the ground would all be centred around junior sport. So if there's an issue with junior sport requiring those amended hours, then we can look at that.

Yeah, just because in general the Sports Council, with all of their night-time training, the general district consensus is that lights go off at nine. So if that's what we do around the whole district, it'd be good to keep in line with that. Thank you. Are we putting that out , or— because I just want to know if we're putting that out to the community with the time, should it be what we need it to be, rather than something that needs to be debated later?

I think we need to get some clarification. I'll have to follow it up. I thought there was going to be a member of staff here, but generally speaking, sports grounds around the whole local government area are designed for junior and senior. But this is a junior facility, so we just need to confirm what the hours are for junior facilities.

If we can confirm that later, that's fine. Thank you. I think we might just have a confirmation.

Yes, page 44 of the attachment 4.

Thanks.

Thank you. Two-thirds the way down under the heading sport, all lights are to be turned off by 8.30 p.m. Competition sport is to be predominantly for juniors, no overflow parking. So that's the sentiment that was expressed in the consultation.

Would it be relevant to put an amendment now for 9 o'clock, or is that something that you would suggest we debate after we get feedback?

I think we get the feedback and then we debate it. Thank you

Further discussion

Councillor Rasmussen. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Just a question. As we would know, the community had strong views about lights and floodlights and how long they would be on for and when they would be shut. So can I ask that we deal with this issue through the consultation period first? Because most people would have looked at that and said, okay, that's fine, we can live with that. But if we start varying it now, we would be contrary to

I think that was the decision, was that it would be left until the feedback comes from the public consultation.

Thank you.

Councillor— If I

Could, not to complicate, but just taking up Councillor Rasmussen's point, if we were to put this out at 8.30 and everyone says, yeah, that's fine, then we change it to 9 o'clock, I don't think that's the way to go. I think we change it to 9 o'clock and get the feedback if there's a problem , rather than not tell people we're considering it.

I don't mind. It's a half-hour change. I mean, that can be significant to people in the area, but I'll take Mr Conroy's advice.

If we're happy to put nine o'clock for the purposes of consultation and to get feedback, then I don't think there's a problem with that. But I think it is about getting the consultation before we make the final decision.

So, Councillor Conolly, would you like to have some formal amendment or just adding on to the recommendation that that be changed on page 44, I think it was, or whichever the relevant page is, to read 9 instead of 8.30? Yes. And your seconder, Councillor Rasmussen? Yes. Thank you. Further discussion?

Councillor Ross.

Mayor, I'm just interested in public exhibition. What is the level of public exhibition, and is that going to be adequate to meet Councillor Calvert's concerns about trying to garner a wider representation of age groups?

I'll get a list of the places it will be exhibited.

Mr Organ.

Through you, Madam Mayor, as indicated in the recommendation, we go out for 28 days, which is the mandatory requirement for a plan of management, and then further 14 days to receipt that information. Essentially what we'd be doing, place that on our website. We can look at further engagement through social media to direct people to our website and sending out letters as well to the respondents that have already participated in that, but certainly trying to capture that larger demographic and market.

Thank you, Mr. Organ. Councillor Ross.

Would it possibly be appropriate for Council also maybe to send it to the principals of the various schools within that area, including Grace View, Kurrajong, etc., please?

Mr. Organ.

We can certainly do that, Madam Mayor. As I said, it's a mandatory statutory process, but we can certainly write letters to any other organisations, encourage them to provide submissions.

Thank you. Councillor Wheeler. Thanks, Madam Mayor. Given that most schools now have a Facebook page and also Redbank has a Facebook page, would it be worth sending—and we will have this on our Facebook page—would it be worth sending links to those organisations so that they can share it through their networks as well? It might increase the consultation of people who are likely to move to the area. There's, I think, quite an active Facebook page, Redbank's page, with people waiting to build and move in, and the schools are likely to have more of the younger population that Councillor Calvert's hoping to tap into. Yes, Councillor Wheeler. Mr. Organ.

Yes, as indicated, we'd be looking at using social media and through our own social media channels as well, linking those to others.

Thank you. Further discussion? No further discussion. Right of reply, Councillor Conolly. Not necessary. Put the motion, which has the additional point of changing the timing from 8.30 to 9 p.m. for the public exhibition. All those in favour? Against? The motion is carried. Next item.

Item is item 2.1, and we have one speaker, Carolyn McKenzie.

Councillor Lyons-Buckett, Mayor of the Hawkesbury City, Councillors, General Manager, ladies and gentlemen. The Committee of the Hawkesbury City Eisteddfod would like to thank the Council for providing the venue for the Eisteddfod in the past. The funding is attributed to the Eisteddfod Society; however, it is really the tens of thousands of competitors from the Hawkesbury and surrounding regions who over the years have benefited from the opportunity to participate. The Hawkesbury City Eisteddfod is the facilitator of this event, not the beneficiary of funding. The community benefits as the Eisteddfod provides a forum on which solo, group, public and private school entrants display their skills in a friendly atmosphere and in a much admired venue, performers pace each other in the development of talent, confidence and leadership, all useful skills that equip them for life.

It is a forum for the youth of the district and for some a stepping stone to greater things. For 67 years the youth of the Hawkesbury and surrounding areas have attended the Eisteddfod. There would be few families in the Hawkesbury, and in some cases three generations, who have not attended at some time, perhaps in a school dance group, public speaking section, playing the piano, performing in a choir or a band, singing a solo, reciting a poem, or presenting a high school certificate piece for a critique before the exams. The Hawkesbury Eisteddfod is a significant cultural event, but not only the Hawkesbury, but the North West growth areas and Blue Mountain areas. And this year we had Merryweather School sent down a bus, or several buses, with their bands.

Both individuals and school groups use the Eisteddfod as a cultural hub where they polish their skills and gauge their progress in the performing arts. This year, 183 school groups performed and are still performing from 49 schools. Eighteen of these schools were local. Others were from neighbouring districts, Dural, the Northwest and Blue Mountains. Schools bring visitors to the Hawkesbury. They bring family, friends, grandparents and so on. Participation in the Hawkesbury Eisteddfod is a valued inclusion in a school's prospectus. In the 20 days of competition this year, we've had 4,750 entered in school events, 1,200 in solos and 1,800 in dance groups. A total of approximately 7,750 performers will have crossed the stage by the time we finish, plus an additional 1,500 spectators.

Our committee is a small band of volunteers, 18 in all. Each brings to the Eisteddfod her particular expertise. The Eisteddfod takes many months of preparation and countless hours of data entry, preparing the syllabus, the program, as well as purchasing of stock and a million other things we do. We endeavour to use local businesses where we can. There is much to consider when preparing a festival such as this: child protection issues. There are four copyright licences we have to see to, risk assessment, workers' compensation, public liability insurance and more. While sporting fields and aquatic facilities are the forum for sports such as football, netball, basketball, swimming and other sports, the Windsor Function Centre, formerly known as the Windsor Cultural and Community Centre, via the Eisteddfod, provides the playing field for those whose focus is on the performing arts.

For some years now we've hosted students from the school's industry partnership from Naremba, who are doing the entertainment subject for their HSC. Recently we're informed that we have been awarded a milestone award for our contribution by hosting over 100 students for work experience since the program commenced. The logistics of this event requires a significant financial outlay by the society from December to September. We appreciate the level of funding required. However, for the Eisteddfod to continue, we need the certainty, knowing that we are assured in advance of the funding for the venue. Should the Eisteddfod be discontinued, it won't be resurrected, as many other districts have tried and failed.

It takes specific expertise to do it, and this is not always available. This significant cultural event cannot survive without your funding to provide the venue.

Thank you. Thank you, Mrs McKenzie. Any questions for Mrs McKenzie? No question.

Oh, sorry, Councillor Cotter. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you, Mrs McKenzie. I was just looking at your financial statement and I was just wondering where you say you have door takings, I was just wondering how much do you charge people to come in? We

Increased the level this year, and for an

Adult to come in it's $10 for a session ,

And that we do have, if they want to come in for all day, we give them a day ticket, and that works out at a slightly cheaper rate. Children and seniors come in for $7 a session. On troupe days, which are the big dance days— We charge $16. Right

And the entry fees that are referred to, that's for the competitors, is it?

Yes, yes. On the 1st of June, we have our closing date, and competitors fill out a form, send it to us with their fees, and it's worked out on how many sections they enter plus a $5 administration fee.

Right. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. No further questions. Could I just congratulate you on this year's Eisteddfod? It's been a delight so far, and there's more to come still, so part way through, so congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That was our final speaker on this item. Moved , Councillor Rasmussen, seconded Councillor Conolly. Discussion? Councillor Rasmussen.

Madam Mayor, yes, as has been said, I think, and reiterated again over the years, that this is probably one of the gem events of the Hawkesbury. It draws a lot of young people, mums and dads and uncles and friends and so on into the Hawkesbury, and the kids get a great sense of achievement out of doing it. I've been to a number of them, and they really are something very special. And we are lucky in this area that, A, we have the people and the volunteers who are prepared to put the time and effort into putting on such a spectacular and well-run event, but also the fact that you get a chance to see the young people of the Hawkesbury and how well they perform and what the high levels of achievement that they can achieve, and hopefully many will go on and have gone on to do bigger and better things in their particular field of cultural activity.

So, yes, I think it's a wonderful event, and it's a big investment in the youth of the Hawkesbury and money well spent.

Thank you, Councillor Rasmussen. Councillor Sanfronio.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

I'd like to echo Councillor Rasmussen's comments. I stuck my head in last week and saw some of the primary dance events at the Civic Centre, and they were really outstanding. I was quite blown away by the amount of enthusiasm and talent. I was recalling back to my own youth when I performed in the East Stanford when I was in primary school. So it's a long and storied history that's gone back many decades, and I'm proud that Council lends its support. I'd like to ask staff, if I may, we're proposing a one-year funding agreement so that it can come under the future funding model moving forward, and I've no objection to that. I'd like to know whether funding in the last five years, the period that's just ending now, was indexed to keep abreast of inflation. I want to see if there's been any erosion, or if there may be any potential erosion in real terms of this funding by what's proposed.

Mr. Litwin.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Sorry. So, the grant was indexed apart from last year and this year because of the Council decision in terms of the fit for the future strategy to not index discretionary funding. Funding for the community sponsorship program is considered to be discretionary, so there was no indexation for last year and for this year's grant as well.

So I'm prepared to endorse the recommendation for one year's funding, but I'd just like to telegraph my desire to ensure that any future funding model restores that indexation so that there's no erosion in real terms of the way these events are funded. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Zampronio. Further discussion?

No further discussion?

I'd just like to just add that I think the Eisteddfod is a wonderful thing, and I don't think that it should be interpreted that there's any loss of support for the Eisteddfod, merely that we're looking at reviewing the community sponsorship and how it's done. So I think it's a wonderful addition to our community. I've been a long-term attendee at it, not as a competitor, but as a parent, and just lately really enjoying, as Councillor Zampronio has too in the last week or so, the amazing dancing and so on, and next week it's the singing. So I'll support the recommendation and call on right of reply from Councillor Rasmussen.

Not necessary, Madam Mayor,

Thank you. Not necessary. I'll put the motion. All those in favour? Against? The motion is carried.

That was the last of our speaking items, so I have someone move the items on block. Moved that one, Madam Mayor. Councillor Rasmussen, seconded Councillor Wheeler. All those in favour? We'll move back to item 204 , the event strategy.

Move the recommendation, Madam Mayor. Second that, Madam Mayor. Seconded by

Councillor Rasmussen. Discussion? Councillor

Oh, Councillor

Connolly. Councillor Connolly, sorry.

Only, Madam Mayor, that this has obviously been on exhibition. We were all happy with it when we put it on exhibition, and we haven't got any submissions from the community for any changes other than typographical, so I think we should go ahead and adopt it.

Thank you. Councillor Wheeler. Thanks, Madam Mayor. I think it's terrific that we've now got an events calendar that we can start to work towards promoting. I think it might be nice to put the Estedford on the events calendar, and I think one of the really positive things about the Estedford is that it brings young performers to light. And I think we probably should be using that more to our advantage with some town centres things as well, along with our other events. I think it's really important with our events strategy that we're trying to align community development and resilience with the activation of the town centres, with support and awareness of our heritage and the river, and where we continue to meet and work with community groups.

And we did that on the weekend with the Australiana Pioneer Village , where we focused on history. So for those of us that braved the only day in six months when it's actually rained, there was lots of people having a jolly good time with convict floggings and bank robbing and weddings and kids, and a number of kids apparently who went home and engaged in floggings and sword fighting afterwards as well. So it's good to know that a learning experience was had by all. And apparently we're also talking about the possibility of a similar event next year, and maybe that won't be the day that it rains. So, yeah, and more floggings, yes. And look, the actors who came and worked were really fantastic.

They had a fabulous, a fabulous patter, but it was actually really educational as well. And it wasn't that dressed-up idea of history, that everything in the early colony was rosy. There was a lengthy session with kids about what they ate over the first ten days of their arrival in the colony that really highlighted Hawkesbury's place as the food bowl of the colony. So it wasn't all, you know, convicts in flowing skirts and everybody having a lovely time. It really did reflect the grimness of the way ordinary people lived. I think it's really important for us now that when we do set up these events, that we work in conjunction with community organisations so that we minimise competition between different events and we maximise exposure and publicity and cross-fertilisation with all of those groups.

And we haven't been able to do that before because we haven't had a concrete strategy. So I think this is an excellent addition.

Thank you, Councillor Wheeler. Further discussion? No further discussion. Right of reply, Councillor Rasmussen.

Yes, Madam Mayor, thank you.

I'll put the motion as in the business paper. All those in favour? Against? The motion is carried. Councillor Calvert, could you just please read on your conflict of interest for the item which was passed on block, please.

Yes, I have a conflict of interest, a significant conflict of interest with item 212 because I'm a committee member for one of the— groups that was seeking a grant.

Thank you, Councillor Calvert. Thank you. We'll move on now to item 2.05.

Someone to move?

Move that way, Madam Mayor. Move

Councillor Rasmussen, seconded Councillor Reynolds. Discussion? Yes

Councillor Wheeler. Just very briefly, Madam Mayor, the Wetlands Working Group had its second meeting last week and flagged some concerns about South Creek that's probably relevant to the City Deal's South Creek focus . So the group, which is made up of a number of organisations including representatives from Local Land Services, the Hawkesbury Environment Network and the University of Western Sydney, are calling for much better modelling and monitoring of South Creek and hoping that City Deals could be focused on this. Certainly Western Sydney University is very keen for better partnerships to exist with the City Deals councils to do some further monitoring of South Creek, particularly at our end where all the muck comes out and lands in the river.

Thank you, Councillor Wheeler.

Councillor Calvert. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I just had a question, probably for the General Manager, about the governance strategy and how the decisions are made, and if decisions are made by that group, how binding are they on this council? Is it done by vote? And if we don't agree, are we then expected to go ahead with their decision, or do we get the right to opt out?

Mr Conroy.

Are we referring to the governance groups that are listed on page 22? So the leadership group, the implementation board and the coordination group. Yep. So with the leadership group, we don't — the mayors of Penrith and Campbelltown and Wollondilly and

Blue Mountains are on the leadership group, and yes, I should have read the report, shouldn't I? And we have representation on the implementation board. And certainly the experience to date is that the decisions are not binding, that they're pretty much discussion points at the moment. Until we get to the stage at the end of the year where we've got a properly developed implementation plan, it's still a work in progress. So at this stage, the key issue for us is that we are going to be given the opportunity to put in an application for livability funding by the end of September, and that will be the first time that we're actually in a position where we're going to lodge something formally and we're going to match funding, and we'll be probably — it would be difficult for us to, I think, forego that 15 million dollars once we've applied for it.

I think we'd be building up an expectation in our town centres and other places perhaps that we're going to go for that funding. So I think that'll be the point where Council will start making some binding decisions on itself about that funding application and the next... Point will be towards the end of the year when we get the fully developed implementation plan, and that's when we'll have to again, I think, potentially sign up to some obligations under that as well.

I could have a follow-up question, please. There's been some discussion between the councillors about, for example, the location of the proposed railway line. Is the location of the railway line going to be determined by the leadership group alone , of which we are not a member, or do we have input?

Mr Conroy.

So the location of the railway line is going to be determined by the state government and the business case that the state government are preparing. For the first time, local government have actually got a seat at the business case, at the table, but we're not the decision makers; we're more participants and observers. But it's going to be an opportunity that's not been presented to local government in the past. But the final alignment will be determined by that business case because the final engineering alignment, cut and fill, are all going to influence that business case and its viability. So I don't think that, regardless of which group we're on, I don't think our involvement or non-involvement is going to influence the outcome in that particular issue.

Further discussion? Councillor Kotlash. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Just following on from that discussion, I have a few reservations about the amount of work we're putting into the city deals and what we're actually going to get out of it. It just seems to me that we're walking a fine line about... Getting involved and having our staff spend quite a deal of time, it sounds like, negotiating for particular things that don't actually have much to do with us. For instance, as Councillor Calvert said, the rail and the fast rapid bus service. It says here that the New South Wales Government will establish rapid bus services from the metropolitan centres of Penrith, Liverpool and Campbelltown. So there's , I guess I'd like to voice those concerns and possibly ask what sort of contribution will the staff be making?

It says, I think, in the business paper meetings will be held every fortnight or monthly.

And it's sort of the same question with the Western Sydney Investment Attraction Office.

You know, whilst that sounds very good in the business paper, really they're concentrating on their focus, and it says in the Western Sydney City Deal appendices that the initial focus will be around the Aerotropolis.

The livability item is really quite relevant to the Hawkesbury, and possibly the South Creek item is as well, although we aren't really a majority LGA in that catchment. So again, the staff commitment to these items I'm a bit concerned about. Now the fast tracking of local housing strategies, the same thing. The councils that are going to get the focus are Camden, Campbelltown, Fairfield, Liverpool, Penrith and Wollondilly. Hawkesbury seems to be left out of a lot of things. And that might be for good reason, but again, I think we have to have a good understanding of what we're actually trying to achieve here.

The Uniform Standards one, well, I can see how we would directly benefit from that.

The Western Sydney Planning Partnership, we might benefit from that, although we might not. We might be dragged into planning things that don't suit our LGA. So I guess I just, you want to voice those concerns and to ask whether, as these things are developing, can we have more information about actually what the staff are doing? I know we have to be involved, but I think we have to balance our involvement. Thank you. Mr.

Conroy?

Yes, there's plenty of scope for further updates to councillors as we progress this. Look, it's very early days at the moment. Now, for example, the liveability program wasn't even on the agenda this time last year, and that's something that I think is genuinely going to be of assistance to us as a council. South Creek started as a South Creek discussion, but that's expanding to include a much wider discussion of the Hawkesbury Nepean, and again, we're located at the junction of South Creek and the Hawkesbury. So again, we've got a fairly strong

Link to the outcome of South Creek. So again, I think there's a lot of sense in us being involved in that. Investment Attraction Office. The initial thinking was that it would be around the Aerotropolis, that Badgerys Creek, but as is outlined in the report, in year one that's not going to be the case. And as we say in the report, I think there's scope for us to work with Western Sydney University and some of those other operations at the RAAF base to see if we can extract some benefit from there. So I think there are some genuine opportunities here, even though it's very early in the piece. But I think it's right for Council to expect regular reports and updates on it. And that's been one of the tensions in the process to date, is dealing with the different views and expectations of the Commonwealth and State Government in relation to Cabinet in confidence and things like that.

So we're constantly struggling with the desire for us to open it up, but with Commonwealth and State Governments' desire to maintain that confidentiality of Cabinet discussions and things like that because it's still evolving in their domains as well. And we're continuing to have that arm wrestle. But over time, we do want it to be a very open and transparent process, and it should be something that both Council and the community can have oversight of on an ongoing basis.

Further discussion?

Councillor Calvin.

Probably to the General Manager again. In here it tells us the submissions for the livability one are due next month, I believe. But when could we expect some of the money to start flowing?

Mr Conolly.

With the application, we'll have to put a timeline in for our project. So we've got staff working on that at the moment. And the idea is that once the funding is confirmed, we would start the process of consulting with that. Well, firstly we'd need to confirm the town centres we're going to work on, and then we'd start working with the businesses and other stakeholders in each of those centres to develop a plan for each of those centres. And there would be consultation , working drawings, tendering and then construction. And we would draw down the funding in accordance with that timeline for each of those centres.

Further discussion. Councillor Rasmussen.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Madam Mayor, just as a point of strong interest to mine, the General Manager earlier mentioned that, yes, South Creek is in the City Deal plan, but it is now being widened to the Hawkesbury-Nepean River, which I really welcome, because I think in all of this, I think the big neglect here is that the Hawkesbury-Nepean has really been something that's really not discussed. And as we all know, that's such a central aspect of not only this city, but cities up and down the river and east and west. So the more we spend looking at the Hawkesbury—and it's in a pretty sad state at the moment in terms of flow—the more we spend thinking about that, looking about that and build it into our City Deal, the better we all will be off.

Sorry, Madam Mayor, this City Deal was a Mr Turnbull initiative in 2015, as I recall it, and my concern is that with a change of government, recent change of government, and a new PM— This week. Sorry? Yeah, this week. Yeah, it was this week, wasn't it? I don't think it's next week. That'll be next. That this initiative hopefully be kept boiling away and kept on the move, because as has already been mentioned, there has already been a considerable amount of staff effort put into getting it to this point, which I think is a very good point, or stage of development, which I think is excellent. But there will obviously, as I've read in the business paper, there will be a lot more project meetings to attend by staff, and yes, it does draw staff away from the main task of the Hawkesbury, but I think in the long run, hopefully the Hawkesbury will be better off as a result.

But, Madam Mayor, the concern I have is that hopefully, and we could hopefully get some early indication from the federal government whether or not they are committed to this initiative and whether they are going to persist with the dollars allocated to it and so on. I assume they will, but it'd be nice to know before we spend and allocate too much more of our staff time on it.

Thank you, Councillor Rasmussen. Further discussion?

Councillor Ross.

Thanks, Mayor. I just wish to take up the point on this connectivity theme in relation to these rapid transit bus links.

They appear not to

Give any consideration to potentially a smaller

Feed-in from either Blue Mountains or ourselves into that network, and I'm just concerned that we're being left out of

That.

And there may also be an argument, although they're not involved,

Of areas such as Rouse Hill and so on, who—well, I guess they're going to be connected by rail also, because we're certainly not seeing it. But there seems to be some sort of oversight there, and I think if there's any opportunity for us to try and garner a feed-in operation to these larger transit services, I'd view that as worthy of consideration, please.

Do you want to comment on that, Mr Conroy?

At the moment, the committed section of North-South Rail is from the airport to St Mary's.

The working group, though, is working on an alignment from

Macarthur-Campbelltown in the south up to Rouse Hill, and there's in fact a workshop in relation to that in the next month or so.

There's another then line that comes from Badgerys Creek across to Liverpool. It joins up with the existing Leppington line. So it's a short connection that connects across to Leppington. So they're the main rail public transport initiatives in the City Deal, and none of those initiatives were in place 12 months ago. So we have, as a group of eight councils, made quite significant inroads into public transport in Western Sydney generally. Like when you look at the distances involved, it's 40, 50 kilometres of public transport rail services. It's a significant contribution. The rapid bus transit service is intended to be a service that will be in place prior to the metro until the metro is completed, and it basically connects the centres of St Mary's and Penrith and Liverpool to some land in the vicinity of the airport.

So they will operate for different lengths of time depending on when the public transport comes online. So again, all of these elements were agreed to by the state and Commonwealth government. It wasn't something that local government had a lot of input into, other than local government said from the outset, we want more public transport in Western Sydney. So we've certainly been, I think as a group, successful in getting more public transport in Western Sydney. And then we've also got on the record a discussion that this council has had in more recent times about exploring the duplication of the Existing heavy rail line from Schofields to Richmond and then south to Penrith. So again, we've made contact with the relevant state agencies and started that conversation.

We're not sure how far that's going to continue , but we're certainly starting that process. So I think between the City Deal and our own initiatives, we're starting to get a broader network of public transport opportunities at least under consideration.

Councillor Ross.

Thank you to the General Manager.

I appreciate the context in which you've put all that, and that is fine.

The bus networks about which we're speaking are at least an initial step, if you like, towards greater public transport accessibility as a prelude, possibly to both heavy and rapid transit type rail. It still leaves this area with a paucity of contact. We do have fairly minimal contact, probably only about four to six services a day, both to St Marys and Penrith area from either Richmond or Windsor, and predominantly Windsor, as I gather. I think it could be advantageous to... To , if we can't incorporate this in city deals, maybe we should be advocating for an improvement in the level of public transport, that is bus accessibility to those two major commercial areas, as a matter purely for the Hawkesbury City

Thank you. Mr Conroy.

On that latter point, the Infrastructure Committee has had two meetings at this stage, and at the last meeting there was a conversation around items that we wanted to identify and develop as advocacy points going forward. And an upgrade of public transport was certainly one that was highly rated in that conversation. The minutes of that group will be coming to Council in the near future, and we'll start to see what is evolving as the perhaps advocacy and conversation points for us as an organisation going forward in relation to infrastructure such as transport.

Thank you. Councillor Ross. Can I

Just raise another point?

I appreciate the General Manager's consideration of that. The element that has just really struck me in regard to public transport is that when I look at the car parking facilities at our stations, they are all overflowing through the Monday to Friday period. And frequently that is now also resulting in a lack of accessibility and street parking for town residents. That is certainly the case I notice in Windsor, and I see up at McGraths Hill there at the rail, Mulgrave Station, that the parking

Has grown like topsy, rather, and is now well and truly at capacity. So I think

We need to have a dual approach to this, because to get people to use the public transport, we're possibly going to have to rethink or consider

Where more distant people, say from Colo Heights or even along Bells Line of Road, who may wish to avail themselves of public transport, but then run into the difficulty of parking their vehicles at points which don't result in a loss of amenity within the existing town centres and frustration. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Ross. I agree with your comments, and I think that we do need to advocate, as we have in the past, for better provision of public transport, and provision of station car parking is a state government responsibility, and we should be calling perhaps for more of that. I know that there have been some upgrades in the past, but that's something that's ongoing and needs to tie in with how many people are using the trains, of course. Just briefly on the city deals, I think that I commend all three levels of government that have worked to deliver such an initiative, because it's essential if the city is growing so fast that all levels of government are involved in it and not one takes over and does just what they want.

I think the input from the people upwards, so the closest government to the people is local government. So for the push of the eight councils to have been involved has been a really remarkable achievement. And has been done across political lines and really with everyone focusing on building the region the best way possible, even if not every single item in there directly relates to us. It's building the area so that we all can get whatever benefits there may be spread across the whole area. And we have pushed very hard on behalf of the Hawkesbury to be included in various things, and we have had significant gains compared to what our initial involvement was, and also the same with the Greater Sydney Commission as well.

So I think that moving forward it will be very interesting, and I take on board Councillor Rasmussen's concerns that there could be any changes to something that has come so far, but hopefully not. And I think that we just keep on going. There's a lot of good has come out of the involvement with the other seven councils because it's allowed staff to get expertise and knowledge in how things are done across many areas. The same in the Mayoral forums, which are held once a fortnight to engage with the other mayors and to hear what issues people have in local government, and the sharing of knowledge between eight quite different and yet in many ways very similar local government areas is extremely beneficial.

So we move forward now if we endorse this and move on to the next stage, which will hopefully involve the receipt of some money so we can proceed with the projects that we've been talking about for a while. Further discussion? Right of reply, Councillor Rasmussen. Thank you

Madam Mayor. Put

The recommendation that's in the business paper, all those in favour? Against? The motion is carried. Our next item.

Item is item 207. Moved Councillor Conolly, seconded Councillor Richards. Discussion?

Councillor Wehner. I've just got a question, if I might, Madam Mayor. My understanding is that each, and I'm not sure that I could find the answer to this in the report, and I'm happy to take this on notice. I understand that properties that Council owns need to have a hazard register inside the building, and that, so that, say, someone who comes to work on the property is able to access that and determine where likely hazards are. So in the case of asbestos, it points out which part of the building contains asbestos. And I understand that that's relatively simple in the properties that we both own and control day to day. But I wonder what happens in the properties that we manage through committees or properties that we lease out, particularly where we lease them out to committee-based organisations.

For example, the Australian Pioneer Village, which has currently got a 10-year lease managed by a business group, but actually managed by a committee of volunteers. And we know that while many of those committees have longstanding members, they're also liable to a degree of churn. And I wonder whether they're required to keep a hazard register in all of their buildings. And in the case of the Pioneer Village, that would be quite difficult. There's 27 of them on site. What happens when a worker enters those? Where do Council's responsibilities begin and end as the owner of those properties? And how do we make sure that those hazard registers are kept up to date so that we're not relying on the knowledge of one individual within those organisations if they move on and that information is lost.

Mr. Organ.

Through you, Madam Mayor, I'll probably state at the outset this is an overarching policy that governs our already existing strong practices and procedures in managing asbestos. In terms of the various facilities, Councillor Wheeler is correct. We do have a Hazmat Register, and individual asbestos management plans for each of our facilities. So we've done all of the known facilities, and that includes the Pioneer Village, Australian Pioneer Village, and there is a register that is located in the office in that location. That's updated on a regular basis, and so we'll need to look at what the term of that is following adoption of this policy. I think it was adopted in 2000, provided in 2014 when we did the register out there, and the last update with the staff on site was through a toolbox meeting in 2017.

But I think, yeah, there are things that we can strengthen and make sure they're documented more closely as a result of this policy. That's kind of outlined in Clause 13. There are some facilities where it's obviously impractical to actually have a document on site. That would be, say, a toilet block that doesn't have a system room or whatever. In those instances there, what we do is we have them within our building services area, and when a work order is issued to a contractor or somebody to go and work on that, whether it be our own staff or external, they're made available as part of that work order. So we've already got those processes in place.

Thank you, Mr. Organ. Further discussion?

Councillor.

Just a question, Madam Mayor. This came up at the Wyee Rock meeting last week, and I just wanted to ask the general manager for an opinion or an explanation. I believe if asbestos is found on a site and then taken to a registered waste place , that we then have to pay the state government for the pleasure of taking that asbestos there.

Mr Conroy.

It's not necessarily as straightforward as that. So if it's found on an RMS road, for example, it's the Roads and Maritime Services' responsibility to remove the waste. If it's found in a national park, it's National Parks' responsibility to remove the waste. If it's found on one of our roads, we have to engage a contractor to remove the waste, and we pay for the cost of that contractor. I don't know if we actually pay for the tipping fees as part of that, but we certainly have to pay for the contractor, and in recent instances that cost of that has been in the order of several thousand dollars. So there is a cost. I'm happy to take on board whether we pay the disposal costs as well. I can't tell you off the top of my head. Yeah, so we'll check that and we can circulate that information to Council. If

I could follow up, please. As we know... A lot of people from further towards Sydney see Hawkesbury as an attractive place to which to take things and dump them. And when they do, they don't tend to dump them on the main roads; they dump them on the back roads, which are our responsibility. So that's coming in from elsewhere. We have to then pay a contractor to collect it and take it, and probably pay tipping fees for it as well. So I'm wondering whether in our policy we should be lobbying the state government on that issue.

So I actually met with the EPA on Friday exactly about this point. The discussion was along the lines of having joint EPA and police inspections on some of our roads, and if, for example, there's a truck moving along the Putty Road and it's got a whole lot of rubbish in the back of it that may or may not include asbestos, then it's not unreasonable for the EPA and the police to stop that vehicle, ask them what their intentions are, and in some instances they will and have escorted them to a proper waste disposal facility. So we also talked about what happens when people presented our tip, our waste site in Richmond on the driftway, and again there's an arrangement we can probably come to where we put the people that have presented on notice, tell them where they have to deliver the material to, and then tell them that we'll be asking for a copy of the docket.

From them the following day. So we've talked about a number of arrangements that we can put in place in terms of joint operations and also activities that we can undertake at our own tip sites. So there's further information coming from them along those lines. But again, there's an acceptance in the EPA that Hawkesbury is one of the real problem spots because it's so close to metropolitan Sydney, yet it's very easy to get out and get away and out of sight and do some undesirable things. So I think it was a good start as a first meeting, but there's more to come.

Further discussion? Councillor Rasmussen.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Madam Mayor, I think this is a great, great initiative and obviously something long in coming, I guess, but certainly now that we're here, so that's good. I note that on page 35 of the report, it says this, third paragraph from the bottom, the policy provides information for council workers, the local community and the wider public, and the part one of the policy includes sections that are likely to be of most interest to the local community and the wider public. So, Madam Mayor, how are we going to make the local community and the wider public aware of this policy? Are we going to put it out on our website? Are we going to launch it? Are we going to have a cutting ceremony or something?

How are we going to publish this and how will people get to know about it other than to get, hopefully, one just get buried on a shelf somewhere and that's the end of that, and Mr. Organs and his team have done a whole lot of work to put it together. So that's really my question, because I think there is some interest here from the wider public, because it is, as it says in the report, it is really hard to figure out whether you're dealing with asbestos or not, or whether it's just, you know, hardy plank or some other quite safe material, right? But anyway, if we could— Just take that on board, please.

Thanks, Councillor Rasmussen. Mr. Organ, do you want to comment on that?

Probably give a very similar answer to the Peel Park one. Look, we'll put it out on social media, we'll put it on our website, make sure that it's well known. There is a lot of good information that's come from the various state agencies that's contained in the back of the document there, and it's probably, it's a gold mine, I guess, for, you know, putting out little news blurbs to keep this in the forefront of people's mind, particularly when they're renovating or trying to dispose of materials.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Thank you, Councillor Reynolds.

Yeah, just to pick up on Councillor Rasmussen's point and Mr. Organ's answer then, as we know, there's, you know, a lot of buildings in our LGA that contain asbestos, especially the old housing commission homes around South Windsor and Hobartville and Windsor and Richmond. And a lot of people don't realise they've got asbestos in their house and they do a lot of renovation. I note that in the report on page 11 it says roles and responsibilities of Council, and the first one is educating residents. And when we go to our website, it's very, very, it's not hard if you do a search, but it's at least four clicks from a search to find the appropriate document. There's nothing under development and there's nothing under health, although eventually it does appear in subcategories from that.

So it would be really good if there was something easy to find on the homepage of the website, just under development or health. And then it does eventually go to a page by the Asbestos Awareness. dot com.au, and it's got a lot of great information. It's just a bit of a battle to find it. So having , you know, dealt with asbestosis a bit in the past, when you're looking for information, there's a lot of misinformation out there and there's a lot of cowboys in the industry, as we know, that will come and get rid of it. So I think it would be, some easy-to-find stuff on the website would be quite appropriate. Well

Hopefully if this is passed tonight and once it's adopted, then there will be some form of media release or strategy of how the other policies are put out as well. Okay, good. Thank you.

Councillor Wheeler. Thanks, Madam Mayor. Further to Councillor Reynolds' comments, last year as our Australia Day ambassador, we had Bernie Banton's wife, who's working in asbestos education and information, and she was very— both she and her husband were very keen to come out and help with any asbestos education and awareness that we needed done. So perhaps we could call on them and their organisation for more help. I think it's also worth mentioning at this point the really successful project that Council was part of for small amounts of asbestos to be removed and the legal dumping of them subsidised. And I think we should seek further funding to do a similar project, perhaps through WesROC or through the Regional Strategic Alliance.

Asbestos is, unfortunately, the scourge of Western Sydney, and it's those areas with the fewest financial resources that are most heavily burdened by asbestos. So I think it behoves Council to use its power to try and help those people get that off their properties. It's a lifelong legacy for people who've lived with it, and all of us who've grown up in houses in Western Sydney are no doubt riddled with asbestos fibres, and hopefully most of us will not end up with a genetic lottery that sees us with some problems down the track.

Further discussion?

Right of reply, Councillor Conolly. Put the recommendation, all those in favour? Against? The motion is carried. Next item.

Item is item 213.

I'd like to move this. I sent through an additional couple of points to the recommendation that was in the business paper. I'd like to move that as the motion , if that's possible, seconded, Councillor Conolly. I did send it to all councillors earlier. Just to speak on this item, when I saw the summary of the council resolutions, it was telling us if things were complete, but it didn't tell us anything about what action happened. So where we had sent a letter, I think it's important that we know if we got a response, or if we asked for a meeting, did we get the meeting, etcetera and so on. So also in the recommendation, it calls for—it's coming up, there it is—just for future reports asking, could we have an additional column which actually, first of all, if we go back to the outstanding resolutions from the previous six-monthly reports, this is in view of not losing track of things that have been resolved, and we need to know where they're at, so an approximate time frame if that's possible, but also to know what exactly has happened with these resolutions.

If they are truly complete, they're just all finished, but if they've got something ongoing, we need to know that information, and we need to go back over the ones that have happened in the preceding time so that we can continue following up and so that we don't forget about things and bring another resolution, bring another notice of motion relating to the same thing. So further—oh, sorry, I need a seconder for that, and it was seconded by Councillor Conolly, it was indeed. Thank you, Councillor Conolly. Further discussion? Councillor Calvert.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I've been having similar discussions with the general manager about how we track what happens in council. And as he might mention, I suggested that we have the hub and perhaps we could use that as a way for councillors to get in there and see where things are up to. Because many times I get phone calls or messages from people and they want to know, you know, six months ago you agreed to do this, where's it up to? And it's very difficult for me to find out without tracking down the general manager and then he has to go and look it up and it's a whole lot of time and effort. Whereas if it was written in a place that I could just go and find, then I could give a brief answer to these people.

So what I'm hoping in there is, as you said, Madam Mayor, not just a word to say completed, but maybe a section which talks about any problems it's having, like this can't be completed until the flood strategy is finished or something like that which tells us where it's up to. Now, I was just trying to think, but I think I first asked for this to happen in 2003 with Gary McCully as the general manager. I'm still waiting. I must be very patient. But I thank you, Madam Mayor, for bringing this up. I think it's the first step towards doing that, and I'm hoping that this will become something more than a list. It'll become an interactive document that councillors can use on a daily basis.

I'm just wondering if, in light of that, whether the six months is too far apart, whether it should be quarterly. Originally there was a notice of motion in the last council, and it was put forward for quarterly, and then— hello. I don't think it's that much more work. I mean, it's the same amount of work, isn't it? It's the same information, just going forward. Councillor Conolly.

Could I suggest maybe this would be more of a [unclear] workshop on how we would like to see this information and how often, and that way staff can submit into what's practical for them from a reporting point of view. We can also get— Well,

I'm happy to leave it at six-monthly if it's initially

But I think these are two different things.

Yes. Yeah,

I do too. I

Think the reporting— Yeah. I don't know.

Councillor Ross.

I'm of a mind to support Councillor

Calvert here.

I can point to a notice of motion going back to the 9th of May 2017, to which I have not had a proper response or report.

I think it might be as well if the whole term of council was somehow made, in terms of the recommendations, made interactive, and the resultant responses or incompleteness be reported that way and, in a sense, be kept alive. And even because they're resolutions of council, they are public documents. And I would very much tend to favour them being available on the website for the community to access. And when an answer or response is given, it be updated at that time and not have to wait for formal processes to chomp along in months and months' time. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Ross. It seems we've gone into the territory of two different things, so I suggest maybe adding a point four. We've got 2.1 and 2 are the same. We've got a point 4 for a workshop to deal with the other thing, but leave this reporting as the three first points. Are you happy with that, Councillor Conolly, as a seconder, before you eat that? So, any further discussion on that? If we add on that additional point, we'll go to a workshop to discuss what you were just speaking about, Councillor Ross and Councillor Calvert were speaking about, and we'll amend the reporting of the six-monthly resolutions to have the additional column. Further discussion? Can

We see that on—

Councillor Calvert

And is this point going to say that we're having a workshop? Yes Yes

Specifically to deal more with the interactive, up-to-date, online everything happening, but we still do need the reporting mechanism, I think, as is.

Well, if I might, I would think that if the interactive one gets going, then this one—

Yes, we'll slip away. But in the interim, until it does, I think we should continue with it.

So we'll just wait on the wording. Number one's going.

Is there any further discussion in the meantime?

So the final point is to have a workshop about the interactive. So is everyone happy with that without waiting for it? Happy? It's up now. Council conducted to further discuss accessibility and interaction.

It's a pretty broad term, yeah, we know. Specific to outstanding council resolutions, I think it should say. Further discussion.

Probably no need for a right of reply except to say I think it's important that we firm this up and get it tidy so that we can all follow what's going on. So I'll put this as it is on the board. All those in favour? Against? The motion is carried. Next item, item two.

One five, Heritage Advisory Committee. Moved that way, Madam. Moved Councillor Rasmussen, seconded Councillor Wheeler. Discussion?

No discussion.

Right of reply, Councillor Rasmussen. Not necessary, Madam. Put the motion. All those in favour? Against. The motion is carried.

Questions on questions from

The 14th of August. Any questions on questions?

None. Questions for next week.

Councillor Richards. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Can I please get some staff commentary on whether the council has decided to no longer accept hand drawings of plans for buildings, whether they're only accepting digital ones, and secondly, whether council has made it a compulsory requirement that every DA has a survey, or every significant DA, not a pool or something, but there's a requirement for a survey to be undertaken by the applicant. Thank you. Councillor Tree, Councillor Conolly

Councillor Sempronia, Councillor Kotlash. Thank you,

Madam Mayor. I had somebody ask me yesterday about our tip fees, our waste management facility fees, and apparently he's experienced, if you go into the tip and you have a trailer load of green stuff and you have your tray with something else, you have to go to the weigh station, then go and dump your green waste, and then come back out and then go again and get your tip , whatever the other thing is weighed, and then you're charged twice for that. Back in the old days, you used to just go in there and you were charged sort of one, apparently. I haven't done this. You were only charged for one Is there an entry fee? I don't even know how we do

It. An

Entry fee. So I was asking for clarification on that and whether that's the case. That seems possibly a bit unreasonable.

Thank you. Councillor Weiler.

Yes. Apparently we've got more people regularly feeding the pigeons in both Howe Park and Windsor Mall. They're a group that hand out pamphlets for a religious organisation. I saw them today in Howe Park, and apparently Thursdays they're in Thompson Square. Could we send some staff down and point out that we have a small problem with pigeons and perhaps they could stop feeding them would be helpful. Could we also have some clarification on what's happening with the proliferation of signs on the roadside in the LGA advertising businesses? So there's several in Wilberforce, and so if we could have, they seem to be in, apparently they're in violation of our signage policy, if we could have those looked at.

And also, has Council received any information about the reclassification of Comleroy State Forest now being allowed as a site for bow hunting? Apparently it can now be used. We've escaped pig dog hunting, but apparently Comleroy State Forest is now, which is protected koala habitat, is now, you can now make an online booking and seven days a week bow hunting is allowable in that area. Has Council been informed, and could we have some clarification on that? And have we notified neighbouring residents? We've had problems with bows being fired at native wildlife and at people's properties in the past, so this clearly represents a threat to our residents.

Thank you, Councillor Reynolds. Yeah,

Thank you, Mayor. Question for the Director of Infrastructure Services. Could we have a look at the movable ramp that connects to the pontoon wharf in South Creek? At very low tides, it becomes very steep and it's quite slippery, and it's reasonably long, and people have had falls and sustained bruising and grazing and whatnot. It would be terrible if someone was to hit their head and end up in the water and then not come back. So, yeah, if we could look at that, put some kind of non-slip surface on it, that would be great. Thank you.

Councillor Gower, Councillor Rasmussen,

Councillor Ross. Yes, Mayor, thank you. A number of questions.

Firstly, as a prelude, I notice that, in response to my question four at the last meeting, the staff indicate that

They are seeking to have liaison meetings with RMS and the contractor to address any issues as they may arise. Taking that as a starting point,

Council, I'm sure, if they're not already, would be aware that the

CAWB website at the moment has— A region in excess of 120,000 people at the moment over this WBRP project. And particularly in most recent days, the destruction of the flora in the Lower Square has reached some 40-odd thousand people. My concern is with the archaeological relics. Now, I'm just wondering, do the comments at question four there relate also to council's

Salvage of the archaeological relics and placing those into council's hands immediately after having been properly documented and treated so that the elements, for instance, of the box drains can be reassembled and placed on exhibition, for instance, I would suggest in the current Council Museum in Baker Street. I'd like to

Understand if that's possible and that if Council is of that mind, could also stakeholders interested in the project be Brought in on that consultative process that is being thought about.

Councillor Ross, just for future reference, if you had—when that's a question for questions on questions, if you're referring to a question from the time before, and just, I understand, but just to be mindful, these are designed for reasonably shorter questions. If something has a lot of substance, it's best probably coming as a notice of motion. But proceed for now.

Thank you for your grace, Your Worship. It's not a matter of—I'm sorry to say—that can be raised as a matter of a notice of motion.

The community are aware that there are

Folk who have frequented the Lower Square area in the last two days and have been carrying on with excavatory works in those areas, about which we've got apparently no buy-in at the moment. And the community is very upset, hence the degree of activity on the—

Councillor Ross, could you just ask the questions,

Please? Yes, I'm explaining. Sorry, Madam, that was an explanation as to why a notice of motion was not appropriate in this instance. But I was using question four as the basis upon which to come forward with a new element, a new area altogether. I hope that's clearly understood. Now, my next concern is also in regard to the animal shelter. I've had two complaints in regard to matters there. One was questioning apparently a testamentary grant of $100,000 given to Council for works associated or improvements at the facility .

Would it be possible, please, for Council to give the public an indication as to how those funds are to be expended, or whether they have already been expended? And another one came from a concerned owner of a lost moggy,

Which strayed from the property and apparently was taken in by the pound folk. As I'm led to believe, and I haven't been able to affirm this 100%, the particular beast was both microchipped and desexed as well.

The owner of the said pet apparently approached the facility, and they had it in their care. That occurred within a matter of three or four days, as I understand. The owner was then asked to pay some of about, I think, $450 to regain ownership of the pet on the grounds that the owner would have to pay for those services, which were already evident that the animal had received. I'd just like to query: is Councillor aware of this instance, and could it be addressed possibly a little more in favour of the resident concerned? Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Ross.

Sorry , I have a question that was emailed through to all of us councillors just this evening at 5.35 prior to coming in, and it's just from the Morality Progress Association regarding Skybill Road. Can we get somebody to look at the condition of Skybill Road, in particular the Pitt Town Dural Road and Skybill Road intersection? I'm happy to forward on the email to staff that shows a great amount of detail of all of the defects that appear along Skybill Road in particular.

Thank you.

That's all questions.

Sorry, Madam Mayor, I thought we were still on questions, on questions, so— No,

We're on real questions

This is real questions. Well, I have a real question.

Okay, we'll go swing back round to you for that.

We've all been made aware of reports in the media of illegal land clearing and building construction at Colo. The Land and Environment Court has instructed those people to cease certain activities. And that other things will not be permitted until the appropriate permissions have been granted by Council. So my question is, the kinds of permissions that will now need to be sought by these people, is that the kind of thing that this Chamber will deliberate on, or will they routinely be granted by staff under delegated authority, or will they be done by Planning Panel?

Thank you, Councillor Sampronia. The General Manager intends to address after confidential to the Councillors to update on that matter. Any further questions? No further questions. Someone move we go into confidential. Moved, Councillor Rasmusson, seconded Councillor Wheeler. All those in favour?

Mr Mifsud?

Mr Mifsud? Ah

In regard to item 218.

Councillor Richards, a read her conflict.

Thank you. Item number 218, significant non-pecuniary, I am friends with an involved party. Thank you.

Whilst in closed session, Council resolved on the motion of Councillor Conolly , seconded by Councillor Rasmussen, that: one, Council not proceed with the sale of 139 Colonial Drive, Bligh Park and 85 Rifle Range Road, Bligh Park to Charlani Constructions Pty Ltd in relation to the current offer; two, Council not agree to sell 139 Colonial Drive, Bligh Park and 85 Rifle Range Road, Bligh Park to CCBP Pty Ltd, ACN 622 563 858, ATF CCB Unit Trust in relation to the current offer; three, details of Council resolution be conveyed to the proposed purchasers and their agent, and the reasons for not proceeding with the sale as outlined in the report; four, Council carry out further investigations regarding the impacts of environmental legislation on 139 Colonial Drive, Bligh Park and 85 Rifle Range Road, Bligh Park, with the matter being reported back to Council once the investigations are complete; five, Council investigate the level of use of the Tennyson Community Centre, and this matter be reported back to Council with the report outcomes of the environmental investigations.

In regard to item 219, whilst in closed session Council resolved on the motion of Councillor Rasmussen, seconded by Councillor Reynolds, that the Dangerous Dog declaration issued on the American Staffordshire Bull Terrier mentioned in the report be revoked. In regard to item 220, whilst in closed session Council resolved on the motion of Councillor Rasmussen, seconded by Councillor Reynolds, that: one, Council, in accordance with the provisions of section 55(3)(i) of the Local Government Act 1993, not invite public tenders for the reconstruction of half road works, south side of Hall Street, Pitt Town between Hawkesbury Street and Lot 100, number 21, due to the need to undertake works in conjunction with the adjoining development road works; two, the General Manager be delegated authority to negotiate and enter into a contract that achieves value and demonstrates transparency and probity and the other legal advice; three, details of the contract entered into be subsequently reported to Council.

Thank you, Mr Mifsud. The meeting is closed at 8.40. General Manager would just like to give an update on the land and environment court matter.

So... Meeting's finished, so... Okay. Can everyone hear okay? Yeah, just to hear.

Can everyone hear okay? It's not overly.. . So we've...