"Whose city is it?" (Newcastle Herald, 5/8/23) was an opinion piece I wrote in response to the attempt last year by Hunter Community Forum (HCF) to make the City of Newcastle (CN) more accountable and transparent to the citizens of Newcastle.
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The forum is a coalition of concerned citizens from the Newcastle Inner City Alliance, Newcastle East Resident's Group, and the Hunter Community Environment Centre.
A lack of progress with CN accountability and transparency since the first forum led to a second HCF meeting in May this year. This forum focused on "Taking back our city: Making city planning accountable. How can we make democracy in local government work?"
Proceedings were chaired by Paul Scott, who read out apologies from: "Scott Neylon of Wallsend, Scott Neylon of New Lambton, Scott Neylon of Stockton, but not Scott Neylon of Japan". This led to laughter, as Newcastle is now in on the joke.
Only some of the intended recipients of the messages from the HCF forum turned up or sent apologies, and only one councillor from each of the three political parties was present. The lord mayor was nowhere to be seen.
In February this year, the ALP had a chance to renew the city's leadership and select a different candidate for lord mayor, but failed to pick Newcastle medical specialist Ross Kerridge, who was a keynote speaker at the forum.
His contribution on the night revealed a deep thinker who understood what was needed to make local government accountable and reflect the people's will.
The room responded very positively to a suggestion from the floor that Dr Kerridge run for lord mayor as an independent, which he politely declined. What a pity.
The HCF expressed great concern in their documentation about the lack of consultation and cost blowouts on these council projects: Newcastle beach skate park, $11.7 million to $20 million; Foreshore Park and regional playground, $3.8 million to $12.8 million; and the council shift to the West End, $7 million to $17 million.
The HCF paper also expressed disquiet about the lack of transparency with the Newcastle Ocean Baths (stage two), the privatisation of inland pools, and the future development of entertainment precincts in the CBD.
The forum expressed the need for more accountability of non-elected officials and concern about the level of transparency of their decision-making processes. It was suggested that CN bureaucrats be answerable to the public and that key documents be open to public scrutiny.
If Newcastle is to reach its potential after years of poor decision-making at CN, a new broom is needed to reform the organisation. This would help unleash Newcastle's destiny as one of Australia's dozen "enterprising cities" (KPMG Report).
The forum also focused on the state government's poor decision-making.
The state-approved massive suburban development planned for pristine bushland west of Wallsend with virtually no community amenities, also came under fire. Even CN is opposed to this, but the state government has ignored local opinion.
There was also disquiet about the lack of consultation and planning for the state government's latest brainwave: high-density housing between three and six levels near railway stations. Last Christmas, without any local input, the government identified 31 sites across NSW, including seven in Greater Newcastle, that would be snap rezoned.
This rides roughshod over years of local planning.
There was particular concern at the meeting about the choice of Adamstown, where there is a long history of traffic jams at the railway level crossing.
Peak-hour arterial traffic frequently intersects with slow-moving long coal trains, creating extensive delays. There needs to be a government plan to address this pressing problem.
In his HCF keynote address, Dr Kerridge claimed that Sydney planners didn't understand Newcastle.
This is why he said: "Every time the NSW state government makes a decision about Newcastle, they stuff it up".
