Hunter's Best

Newcastle City Council - Positive outlook for city after end of year review

Source: Newcastle City Council

Building better roads, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, planting trees and shrubs, improving parks and playgrounds are just some of the highlights in Newcastle City Council's Annual Report.

Acting General Manager GRAHAM CLARKE says the last financial year was extremely challenging but very rewarding and the 2006/2007 Annual Report provides a snapshot of Newcastle City Council's activities and achievements for the past financial year.

"The year ended as it began, with a challenge to the administration to demonstrate ongoing efforts to reduce costs while at the same time maintaining the high level of services the community has grown accustomed to."

Great Lakes Libraries to Close in Protest Over Lack of State Funding

Source: Great Lakes Council

NSW has the distinction of being the worst funding State in Australia for contributions towards public libraries – by a country mile.

The State’s contribution now stands at around 7% of total running costs of public libraries.  This is a sad decline from 1980, when State contributions stood at 24% of running costs.

Now the State Government has cut a further $1.16 million from funds towards public libraries, making a bad situation even worse.

How does your wellbeing rate?

Source: Hunter Valley Research Foundation

As the second round of the Hunter Valley Research Foundation's ground-breaking Wellbeing Watch survey nears completion, Hunter and Central Coast councils are beginning to explore how their residents rate on the wellbeing scale.

The Foundation’s Wellbeing Watch – begun as a 50th anniversary initiative in 2006 – involves collecting information annually as part of an ongoing study to help understand whether people are able to afford their day-to-day needs, are able to successfully balance work and family, and whether they feel part of their local community. Responses from 1,500 Hunter householders will be compared where possible with a further 500 collected from respondents in the balance of NSW.

Newcastle, leading the way in smart energy use

Source: Newcastle City Council

Council projects such as the ECO¶STAR™ program and Water Harvesting and Reuse project, continue to strengthen Newcastle’s position as a leader in environmental sustainability.

Last Thursday I had the pleasure to launch the new Water Harvest System at Newcastle’s Stockton Tourist Park, which will be used for irrigation of the park and in the future flushing of toilets.

The new system adds another green star to the parks recent ECO¶STAR™ Rating. Smart hot water, dual flush toilets and AAA showers and taps have already been installed in the Park.

A message from our Lord Mayor

Source: Newcastle City Council

Lord Mayor's message

As Newcastle develops its reputation as a tourism hub and shrugs off its industrial image, the inner city has also begun to transform itself into a thriving urban centre.

Honeysuckle, Linwood and the surrounding foreshore and beach areas have become very desirable places to live and socialise and as these continue to grow so does the need to invigorate surrounding suburbs.

Planning is underway to revitalise Wickham, one of Newcastle's oldest suburbs. Historically, Wickham has assumed an industrial character but as the city's economy changes it is making a transition back to a more mixed use character as more housing is developed.

Directory launches Newcastle businesses

Source: Newcastle City Council

Lord Mayor JOHN TATE will launch a new online directory of Newcastle businesses, the first comprehensive directory of its kind, listing more than 8000 businesses.

The business directory is available on the Newcastle City Council website, www.newcastle.nsw.gov.au, and is a hassle-free way to find local businesses across all industries – from a cafe in Cooks Hill to a welder in Wallsend.

The Lord Mayor says the business directory is integral in promoting local businesses.

Markets to attract cruise ship visitors

Source: Newcastle City Council

Markets in Hunter Street Mall will be held to coincide with the arrival of international cruise ships this season in what will invigorate the city centre with a vibrant mixture of locals and international visitors.

Hunter locals are encouraged to converge in the Mall, shop at the quality stalls and businesses on offer when the Mercury visits three times this cruise season.

Attracting over 2000 visitors each port of call, the Mercury will visit on Friday’s 21 December, 18 January and 15 February.

Newcastle's Management Plan starts here …

Source: Newcastle City Council

Newcastle City Council will be laying the foundation for a more positive dialogue with the community over the annual Management Plan with the first meeting of a new advisory group being held this week. 

In adopting this year’s Management Plan, the Council reflected on the difficult task of reflecting the community in the organisation’s annual operating plan and budget. It resolved to establish a new advisory panel to assist in providing the community with a framework to understand the Management Plan process and create an environment where issues can be discussed positively and openly.

An information session to discuss the Management Plan Advisory Panel will be held this Wednesday, 24 October from 6-8pm in the Lovett Gallery, Newcastle Region Library.

Newcastle City Council's General Manager resigns

Source: Newcastle City Council

Lord Mayor JOHN TATE says the resignation of General Manager JANET DORE is a sad loss for Newcastle but a win for Melbourne.

The General Manager has resigned to take up a senior executive position with the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) of Victoria.

The Lord Mayor says the General Manager is also returning for personal reasons.

“Janet has been under considerable pressure over the past seven weeks following the diagnosis of a serious illness in the family.”

This week at Newcastle City Council

Tuesday 18 September

7pm - Strategic Policy Committee meeting will be held in the Council Chambers, Second Floor, Newcastle City Hall. Items on the agenda include:

Briefing: Suggested enhancement of NO 2 Sportsground
Members of the Newcastle rugby community have approached Council to investigate the potential to modify No 2 Sportsground to a rectangular shape. The briefing will outline the proposals and how to progress the request.

Briefing: Good Sports
The program is an initiative of the Australian Drug Foundation to develop safer and healthier communities by helping sport clubs to manage alcohol responsibly.