Veteran councillor Oates still hitting some boundaries

Veteran councillor Meg Oates, who will celebrate 30 years on Campbelltown Council next year, was in fine form at Tuesday night’s meeting.

Cr Oates tabled not one, not two, but four notices of motion.

Not only that; they were all top shelf.

The big one was her idea for night markets to boost both the night time economy of Campbelltown but also the availability of services late into the night.

As the mayor, George Brticevic, pointed out during discussion of this idea, it is almost impossible to get a decent cup of coffee anywhere in town after 9pm.

Cr Oates also made an interesting suggestion about what to do with the historic silos on Appin Road.

She would like to see an artist commissioned to paint portraits of local historical figures on the silos because she is concerned we are gradually losing our history, which Cr Oates argued was of national significance.

In the other two notices of motion, Cr Oates asked the council to support the Ingleburn Horticultural Society and Gardens Club in celebrating their 90th year of operation, believed to be the longest such period in NSW.

The Campbelltown Airds Historical Society is also celebrating its 70th year and Cr Oates asked that they get council recognition as well.

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Plenty of punters were spotted enjoying a Guinness or two at local watering hole Court Tavern today for St Patrick’s Day.

Among others we spotted Mark the Magpie Wallington while sharing some excellent Chinese tucker with the chief executive of the South West Sydney Academy of Sport Gerry Knights.

Some of the regulars reckon the Chinese in the Court Tavern is the best in Macarthur and who are we to argue.

Either way, Happy St Patrick’s Day.

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Macarthur Square had its big expansion opening last week and they’re talking more than $200 million in construction costs.

That’s all good and welcome but it’s anybody’s guess when they will spend a few dollars to make sure the northern entrance is smoke free.

In the meantime, bad luck if you’re an asthmatic and have to run the gauntlet of the smokers who are puffing away right outside the entrance.

To be fair, it’s not the only local shopping centre with this problem, but hopefully something will be done soon to move smokers right away from entrances to such places.

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There’s no need to panic, they won’t be making it compulsory, but live streaming of council meetings is inevitable at both Camden and Campbelltown.

Both councils voted on Tuesday night to just “look into it’’ but the intent is clear.

At Campbelltown it was suggested by Cr Margaret Chivers, who told council that it should look at the facts before making a final decision.

Over at Camden the council threw out the original motion by Labor councillor Paul Farrow, who wanted live streaming to be given the green light on the night.

A new resolution  that council officers investigate live streaming of council meetings including consideration of positives and negatives and any matters concerning policy, procedure, legal implications and costs was backed by all councillors except one, Cr Rob Mills.

So live streaming is coming and it will just mean that if you have nothing better to do on a Tuesday night or council is about to approve a rubbish tip or a brothel next door to you, just crank up your home computer or laptop or ipad or even iphone and listen in to see what happens.

There are no plans for pictures yet, so we will all be spared the sight of some of our local politicians pretending they’re statesmen and women.

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And finally, with the byelection on tomorrow in Campbelltown, we leave you with some electoral humour invented by some wit who said: Vote early and vote often. Note: this is a joke, OK?