Message from the Mayor: 21 October 2022

Hello I'm John Connors the Mayor of the Dungog Shire, bringing you this week's Mayor’s message.

The Australia Day committee has been meeting and, as I hope you're aware, is calling for nominations for the various categories of awards. Leading down from the Citizen of the Year to the Junior Sports Award and in the middle is the Sports Award, the Environmental Award, and the Volunteer Award.

If you visit Council's website, you will find the nomination forms are there, and I urge you to put in nominations of people you think are worthy of receiving the awards. We’re looking for nominations from right throughout the shire, covering all corners of the shire and in all of the various categories.

The awards will be announced on Australia Day on the 26th of January at the Australia Day function to be held at the James Theatre in Dungog. That function will start with a barbecue breakfast and then be followed by morning tea which will include Anzac biscuits. So, we look forward to seeing a large crowd attending the celebration on the day.

Martins Creek Quarry has become a hot topic again, the reason at the moment is that the State Significant Development application lodged on behalf of Martins Creek Quarry has now come up for determination. It's not been determined by Council because of the nature of the development and the number of objections. It’s being determined by the Independent Planning Commission (IPC), run by the state government.

The IPC receives, as it has already, an analysis of the proposal done by the Department of Planning and then receives submissions from Council and from all other interested people. To facilitate these submissions, the IPC has arranged for Council to make a submission to it by video link. Council did that yesterday (Thursday).

Arrangements have then been made for the community to make submissions over two days, including the 7th and 8th of November at Tocal College. Submissions can also be made by video link if that suits individuals better than attending Tocal. You do, however, have to register to make a submission and the registration form and the details are contained on the Independent Planning Commission's website and Council will place advertisements on Facebook and on Council’s webpage.

But in case you missed those, you can find their website at www.ipcn.nsw.gov.au. Go to that website, download the form, fill it in electronically and register. You will then be given a time and you'll then be able to make your submission by attending Tocal or by video link if you prefer.

I urge people who are concerned about the proposed development and its impacts, not only from the quarry itself but on the whole proposed haul route all the way through the village of Paterson and down to Bolwarra and across through East Maitland, to please take the opportunity to have your say. Don't let it pass you by because you won't be able to do it if you miss this opportunity.

The major concerns that have been highlighted by Council in its submissions relate to the haulage of up to 500,000 tonnes per annum by road and the consequences of that on the community, on the village of Paterson and of course on the road network and its maintenance and safety issues that flow from that. It's acknowledged that of course that there are other impacts on members of the community from the blasting, the noise, and the dust and other social impacts. But from a Council’s perspective, the road haulage is certainly the impact that is the greatest and will impact the greatest number of people.

So with those words, thoughts, and views, that's it for me until next week. Goodbye