There’s a mini boom in residential knock down and rebuild in the older parts of Campbelltown.
It’s driven by confidence in the future of Campbelltown as a thriving city offering many more local jobs and easy access to the new airport at Badgerys Creek.
Mayor George Greiss, pictured above in knock down-rebuild central, Kent Street, Minto, says the local economy is doing good.
“Jobs are growing in Campbelltown, and they are growing above average, but not to the magnitude we would like,’’ he says.
“It goes back to that definition: if we are going to be a regional city, we have to have jobs here for our residents.
“At the moment 68 percent of all white collar workers travel out for work, and 62 percent of all of our workers leave Campbelltown every day to go to work.
“We really need to get that down below 60, if not more.
“We’re working hard with the NSW Government, and when I meet with ministers and Premier Chris Minns the number one item on the agenda will be jobs,’’ says Mayor Greiss.
Campbelltown is perfectly placed to make a case for becoming the third CBD in the Sydney metropolitan area, but for that they are at the mercy of the state government, and to a lesser extend Canberra.
Campbelltown, and other candidates for third CBD status such as Liverpool, would need some serious investment from Macquarie Street, as well as government departments deployed out here in South Western Sydney.
However, for reasons best known to themselves, the bureaucrats of Macquarie Street are hell bent on creating a third CBD from scratch, next to the new airport, and called Bradfield.
This strategy has put at risk any chance regional centres like Campbelltown had of becoming a third CBD.
“We need more white collar jobs, we need a community justice centre, we need government departments,’’ says Mayor Greiss.
“Our strength is our community, a diverse community, a stable community, growing families, people can come to Campbelltown and plan for the future.
“We offer opportunity.’’
But this mayor, more known for his actions than his words, isn’t giving up on lobbying hard for Campbelltown’s fair share.
“We have seven railway stations, we’re the entrance to the Sydney metro area, a short distance to Canberra, short distance to new international airport, which hopefully will connect by rail to Macarthur,’’ he says.
“We are well serviced by public transport, which is very important for the future of Sydney, and we have a lot of land, in a relatively low density city.
“We are limited at what we can do, so what we can do is to prepare the canvas for others to act.
“We are currently laying the foundation for Campbelltown to grow and when the next phase of growth comes along, and it will, we will be ready to take advantage of it.’’
