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Meeting with North Sydney Council – Oct 14th 2008

Meeting with North Sydney Council

On 14 October 2008, Russ Webber (North Shore Bicycle Group) and Caroline Minogue (Bike North) met with the Mayor, the General Manager and Traffic Engineer of North Sydney Council (NSC) and stated that the Council’s statement of support had been added to the HarbourLink web-site (www.sydneyharbourlink.com). The Mayor reiterated that North Sydney Council had decided not to make its own submission regarding HarbourLink to the Federal Minister for Infrastructure by the 15 October 2008 deadline, as the project would form part of a joint submission being prepared by the City of Sydney on behalf of a group of inner-Sydney councils. This joint submission would be for the development of a network of Regional Bicycle Routes in inner-Sydney and as such could be classified as a project of ‘national importance’. A submission by NSC solely regarding HarbourLink would not have met the requirement for national importance. In response to a suggestion that the Mayor should write a personal letter to the Federal Infrastructure Minister in support of the project,  NSC stated it did not feel that anything would be gained by submitting such a letter given that the project would already be included in the joint Council submission. The Mayor would be meeting the Minister for Infrastructure on 22 October 08 and agreed to mention the project again to him then. The Mayor would also be meeting the NSW Roads Minister, Michael Daley, shortly, to see whether the NSW Government would be willing to fund some inner-Sydney bicycle projects. 

Regarding the production of the promotional DVD, Council advised that the DVD was now finalised and had ordered 400 copies.  These should arrive shortly and it was intended to distribute them to key decision-makers such as State Members of Parliament, Federal Members of Parliament in the relevant Council areas, other Federal Ministers, businesses etc with a covering letter from the Mayor.  The cover letter will include the www.sydneyharbourlink.com web-site address. The posters have also been ordered and will be available in a variety of sizes to promote the HarbourLink project.

When asked whether the Mayor would support an increase in bicycle funding in general in the next Council Budget, the General Manager stated that Council was looking to cut back in many of its areas of activity over the next financial year. The Mayor stated that she would consider the request but observed that NSC received less in rates than many other Sydney Councils. When asked whether NSC had considered the funding of a Sustainable Transport Officer from the increased levies* Council would now receive for ‘climate change projects’, the Mayor felt NSC could consider this once formal approval for the levy had been obtained from the State Government. It was pointed out that Willoughby Council presently funds a ‘Sustainable Transport Officer’ from its environmental levy.

* At the recent local government elections,  NSC had included a referendum question asking whether residents agreed to pay a $50 levy on their rates to address climate change issues. This had received majority agreement.