Councillor Bob Thompson has a list of achievements as long as your arm.
“How long have you got,’’ he says when I ask him to name just a few highlights.
But as he names one after the other it gets harder and harder to recall some of them because he’s been on council for almost 30 years.
“I have achieved a lot since getting elected in 1991,’’ he says when I interview him and one of his running mates, Daniel Draper, in a coffee shop in Ingleburn.
The Glenquarie seniors citizens centre, a new sporting complex at Milton Park Ingleburn, the upgraded Ingleburn railway station – “that was an 18 year push,’’ – there’s no doubt Bob Thompson hasn’t wasted his time on Campbelltown Council.
But as well as council Cr Thompson has been involved in the community via the Neighbourhood Watch and the Ingleburn Bulldogs footy club for many years.
He says people come up to him to tell him something needs done, and he will chase it up, and if he drives past a ground and it needs mowed he will call council officers himself to get it done.
That’s the kind of guy Bob Thompson is and you can’t get any more grassroots than that.
The north of Campbelltown, from Minto through to Ingleburn, Macquarie Fields and Glenfield, has been his domain for the past 25 years.
Around the turn of the century along came a couple of young Labor guns on council, Aaron Rule and Steven Chaytor, who thought they ruled the roost in Ingleburn.
“Oh, I was there long before they came along,’’ Bob Thompson dismisses the two pretenders to the throne.
Not that he confines his grassroots approach to the north of the city.
“We had a big security problem at Rosemeadow and I got involved in fixing that up,’’ he says.
[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]“And I fought hard for Minto Mall to get that fixed. I even got escorted off their premises by security one time while talking about getting it fixed.’’[/social_quote]
A strong opponent of boarding house applications, Cr Thompson says he doesn’t mind plans for high rise apartments near railway stations from Glenfield to Macarthur as part of what they call the railway corridor strategy.
“That’s good,’’ he says.
“Parking is a major issue across the Campbelltown local government area, everyone knows that, so if we do it right and these high rise apartments will have their own parking underneath, that’s OK.
“But we won’t budge on boarding houses which are being pushed on to us by the State Government.’’
Cr Thompson is one of many candidates for the September 10 election who believes that without infrastructure Campbelltown should say no to massive new housing developments Macquarie Street wants to foist on to us.
“If it’s got the infrastructure it’s OK to go with such growth, but if it hasn’t got it then we don’t want it,’’ Cr Thompson says.
“Appin Road should be widened before any of that takes place – everyone knows Appin Road needs to be upgraded.’’
Cr Thompson says it’s frightening the extent of the parking problem in every part of Campbelltown.
“Car parking is one of the main things we need to fix in the next term of council; it’s become a problem from one end of Campbelltown to the other,’’ he says.
The number three candidate on Bob Thompson’s Independent Team ticket for the election is Margaret Shafer, the matriarch of the legendary Campbelltown family.
The Shafers, Margaret and Ken, have been one of the most generous families for many years, supporting many good causes across Campbelltown.
So no need to ask Cr Thompson about Margaret Shafer, but how did he know about his number two candidate, Daniel Draper?
A life member of the East Campbelltown Eagles, Draper has done it all at the rugby league club he’s been with since he was seven, 36 years ago: from president to marketing, line marking, player, captain coach, the list is almost as long as Bob Thompson’s achievements on council.
“I went down there to Waminda Oval a few years ago and watched a couple of games of football and I saw this bloke running around doing stuff,’’ Cr Thompson says.
“I asked about him and found out that Daniel and the entire Draper family are the heart and soul of the East Campbelltown Eagles club.
“They do everything, from playing and coaching and cooking on the barbecues and helping out in the canteen.
“And I saw that the ground needed fixing, a cricket pitch in the middle of a football oval where they play rugby league, that’s no good, you could split someone’s head open on it.’’
Draper says Bob Thompson was the second councillor who asked him to run on his ticket for the 2016 elections.
“I was asked by Fred [Borg] to run on his ticket, but I was a bit further down the list on his ticket, so I thought the reality is I’m not going to get on the council from such a position,’’ he says.
“I wanted to be in a position to push hard to get elected so when Bob talked to me I thought it was a great opportunity to get on, you know, second on the ticket.
[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]“I’ve been fighting council for a long time, you could say as whinger, a pain in the backside, but I think a lot of people inside council don’t understand what sport is going through in the grassroots so I thought I’ll put my hand up and if I can be a voice as a councillor I’ll be able to get more done,’’ Draper says.[/social_quote]
“There are grounds in Campbelltown, for example, that need to have watering systems installed,’’ he says.
“I grew up in Airds, lived there all my life, I’m a proud Airds boy, and a good example there is the Kevin Wheatley Oval, which hasn’t been used for 15 years through neglect.
“There are three fields all together, for cricket, rugby league and soccer, and for 15 years the kids of Airds, what are they doing, are they on the streets, are they vandalising stuff? They’re not playing sport.
“When I was growing up in Airds everyone played sport.’’
At the other end of the sporting spectrum, Draper says he would like council to build gymnasium and administration facilities at Campbelltown Stadium to entice the Wests Tigers to come back to the area fulltime.
“I think if we provide the facilities at the stadium to entice the Wests Magpies to return here from Liverpool, it may make the Wests Tigers say, wow, that’s a fantastic facility, it may be enough to finally entice the Tigers back here on a full time basis,’’ he says.
But sport isn’t the only thing on Daniel Draper’s mind.
He says the Narellan Road fiasco could easily be solved by reopening two old link roads between Campbelltown and Camden Valley Way.
“Back in the early 1900s we had more access to Camden than we do now,’’ he says.
“St Andrews Road used to go all the way through to Camden as did Badgally Road.
“So along with Raby Road and Narellan Road we had four roads that went from Campbelltown to Camden, but we have cut it down to two,’’ Draper says.
“And I know MP Greg Warren’s been pushing for the Spring Farm link road, which would give you five routes linking the east to the west.’’
Draper says that what will also ease traffic congestion around the Campbelltown CBD is a bridge over the railway at Broughton Street to connect it with Badgally Road on the other side.
On Queen Street both Cr Thompson and Daniel Draper agree that moving forward it has to be turned into a niche “eat street’’ to survive.
“We need to close it off to cars, put in bars and cafes and turn it into a nice food precinct like Kellicar Lane at Macarthur Square,’’ says Draper.
“You’ve got the Dumaresq Street cinema which is still popular with the kids and if you have somewhere to eat they will go there before or after the movies.
“We need some action, it’s terrible down there at the moment – we need to fix it now.’’
