Campbelltown mayor George Brticevic says he experienced first hand how the closure of local motor registries had impacted local people.
Cr Brticevic, pictured above, told Tuesday night’s Campbelltown Council meeting that there was so much traffic on Narellan Road he never made it in time at the Gregory Hills Service NSW centre to renew his driving licence.
He said it was unfair that the people of Campbelltown had been forced to travel to Gregory Hills or Liverpool since the closure of the two local motor registries.
Now he wants the state government to bring back such services in a location that most people can access: on the ground floor of the council’s administration building. This is within easy walking distance of Campbelltown station and bus services that cover the entire local government area.
What’s more, council is about to start a refurbishment of the ground floor, where its own customer service area is located and the mayor is hoping there will be a motor registry service centre alongside it when the work is completed.
“We will do whatever it takes to get Service NSW to open here,’’ he said in response to a question from Cr Paul Lake, who wanted to know if the space may even be offered to the state government for free for a period.
The meeting was the second to be held remotely since the onset of Covid-19, but that didn’t stop councillors from enthusiastically getting on board the mayor’s push for motor registry services in the heart of Campbelltown.
“It takes residents three bus trips from Rosemeadow to get to Gregory Hills just to get their driving licences,’’ Cr Ben Moroney said.
Cr Karen Hunt said the mayoral plan would be “a sensible solution considering many people don’t or can’t use the internet to access these services online’’.
Cr Brticevic said Campbelltown was promised the new Service NSW Centre, which went to Gregory Hills instead when motor registries in Ingleburn and Campbelltown were closed in 2015.
“They opened a kiosk in Macarthur Square but it didn’t even have a facility to have a photo taken for a driving licence and so it has been closed for a while now,’’ Cr Brticevic said.
The council voted unanimously to support the mayor’s push for a Service NSW customer centre in Campbelltown.
Part of that push will include lobbying the NSW government at the highest levels, with the help of local MP Greg Warren.
- In other council meeting news, Cr Margaret Chivers successfully moved that council staff receive an additional 10 days bereavement leave upon the death of a child [including step children, adopted and foster children] or their spouse.
This proposal was also unanimously supported and is now part of council policy.
