Now that the local government elections are done and dusted it’s time to look ahead to the next four years.
And there’s no doubt what the biggest issue will be: development, especially of new housing.
For both Camden and Wollondilly, who are still more or less semi rural local government areas, this means most of any new housing springing up will in greenfield land.
Not so in Campbelltown, which will have to cope with two pressure points on housing: one in greenfield sites south of the town centre.
The other will be urban renewal via vertical, or high rise towers of residential apartments, hopefully only along Campbelltown’s railway line spine, from Glenfield to Macarthur.
In between those two ends are Macquarie Fields, Ingleburn, Minto, Leumeah and Campbelltown stations.
New mayor Darcy Lound, in his first interview with the South West Voice expressed a desire to see projects along the railway line that won’t just provide more housing but are transformational.
On the other side of the coin there will be those who want no development at all – the “leave it as it is’’ brigade.
These are the people who once upon a time themselves moved into the area and took up residence.
The reality is that growth, including population growth, is here to stay for most parts of our great country.
People around the world want to come here for a better life, and who are we to say, “no, the joint is full now’’.
But we are a democracy, and the views of those opposed to growth, need to be taken into consideration by the council and Mayor Darcy Lound as development applications come before them over the next four years.
Key to successfully providing more housing has always been ensuring the required infrastructure is alongside where the new homes are.
The State Government – which is pushing hard for a huge number of new housing units across most of outer South Western Sydney and other metropolitan areas – says it is putting its hands in its pockets for infrastructure.
Just this morning it announced $75 million in round 6 of the Special Infrastructure Contribution grant funding.
This targets councils in specific local government areas in the Western Sydney Growth Centres, including Camden, Campbelltown and Liverpool.
The mission for Mayor Lound and the new Campbelltown Council is to push the State Government to dig deeper when it comes to infrastructure funding.
It won’t hurt Campbelltown to play a bit of hard ball to ensure that new residential developments come in an orderly manner and at the same time as the infrastructure.
The same goes for the other three local councils, especially if they join forces to make sure the State Government listens to them.
What we want to have in four years are local government areas that are even better to live in even though we will be sharing them with many more residents.
And our councils have a crucial role to play in achieving this aim.
We wish them well.
