Newcastle councillor says 'great work' by council 'never trumpeted'

Councillor Margaret Wood made the comments during a heated discussion about the council's December quarterly review of its budget performance at the February 27 council meeting.

Her criticism came after Independent councillor John Church spoke about how the supporting the motion would "allow the staff to make significant changes in the triaging and prioritising of major capital works projects".

Cr Church said $4.3 million would be taken out of infrastructure assets and facilities to reschedule flood improvement work on two bridges in Wallsend.

Deputy lord mayor Declan Clausen called a point of order to say the rescheduled bridge work was on the agenda later that evening in a confidential session, where councillors would get to have a say on the matter, while lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes pointed out the rescheduling would delay the work from June to July, which the Newcastle Herald understands relates to property acquisition issues.

City of Newcastle said the adopted budget for the Boscawen Street bridge was $4.25 million, which was reduced to $200,000 in the quarterly review and the rest pushed into the next budget, however the council had advanced $4.73 million in road repairs to replace the loss.

But Cr Church continued, saying the quarterly performance "fails to give us... a clear undertaking or an explanation as to where significant projects are up to".

"While there's a lot of gloss and positive spin and I appreciate it's a busy council and I appreciate that the staff are doing a great job in delivering, we have got a couple of projects that have run off the rails," he said.

Cr Church listed the Newcastle Ocean Baths, relocation of the council's headquarters, South Newcastle Beach skate park and Bathers Way as projects that cost more than first announced, and said the art gallery expansion, "while a very worthwhile project, is already becoming a real money pit".

Cr Nelmes accused Cr Church of "misinformation and disinformation" and said all the projects were within the council's budget.

When asked what she was referring to by "misinformation and disinformation", the lord mayor told the Herald: "John Church's election platform is repeatedly based on misinformation. He has not presented any new ideas or policies for the future of our city".

She said Cr Church voted for the South Newcastle Bathers Way project, the 12 Stewart Avenue relocation, the Newcastle Art Gallery redevelopment, Wallsend flood mitigation, "but in a blistering attack on CN staff has now criticised all of these projects".

Cr Church told the Newcastle Herald he stood by what he said in the chamber.

During the meeting, Cr Nelmes attributed the South Newcastle project cost to the collapse of the previous builder, and said the projects were done post-COVID on estimates made before significant increases in building and labour.

"Council is not immune to that," Cr Nelmes said. "But what I think is important and I doubt very much the importance of this will be reported but council is now financially sustainable and these projects are all within our budget. We are still delivering an operational surplus.

"If we're going to spend 2024 picking apart staff processes and every single project that isn't perfectly delivered to a QS (quantity surveyor) that might have been done two or three years ago, we're getting into a place where we're nitpicking because that's all that's left on a council that's actually delivering over and above for our community."

The budget has forecasted an annual surplus of $7.2 million for the year ending June 30, 2024.

During the meeting, Cr Nelmes said in response to Cr Church that taking snippets out of report and stating "falsehoods" was rewarded by local media.

"The majority of us... that are on all the committees doing all the work, reading all the memos and turning up and getting the work done, that actually know what's going on, the net benefit to us is we just get shoveled upon," she said.

"There's actually a benefit to that methodology because it's rewarded time and time and time again and we don't give the rewards but local media give those rewards. It's exceptionally frustrating."

Cr Wood closed the debate by expressing "anger" at the "misinformation that flies around in the media locally".

The Herald contacted Cr Wood to clarify what she was referring to, but did not receive a response.

She listed the visitation to the city's libraries and attendance at Civic Theatre as "things that you'll never read in the media".

"I simply do not understand how it is that the great work of this council is never trumpeted as it should be in our local media and amongst certain members of the community," Cr Wood said.

"What is it that is not easy to understand? The figures are there, it's all transparent and people should be celebrating all of the achievements that this council has done and yet there is a lack of support from some quarters."

The quarterly performance report said 96 per cent of the council's planned actions were on track for full delivery this financial year.