Today being the 50th anniversary of the proclamation of Campbelltown as a city and the opening of the local railway station’s first electric train line is as good a day to reflect on how we are going these days.
Well, one of my first thoughts was how did they make decisions 50 years ago.
I bet they didn’t run off to expensive consultants and ask them to prepare a glossy report every time they thought of doing something.
My feeling is that unlike our fickle age, they just did what had to be done.
Let’s face it, whether it’s a road that’s full of potholes or a shortage of commercial space, most problems are self evident.
They scream to be fixed.
Real leaders set their priorities and get on with it.
But fifty years later we’re drowning in glossy reports that cost a small fortune to produce and that tell us what we already know.
After 20 years of inertia, the time has come to stop talking and to start doing.
So, what are the self evident needs of our area in 2018?
There’s a few, but the first one, the biggie if you like, is lack of local jobs, forcing most of us to commute to far away places around the Sydney metropolitan area.
And yet Campbelltown Council persists with a 10 storey height limit, which has resulted in zero new commercial space buildings in the central business district.
I dread to think how many jobs we have missed out on just because Campbelltown does not have a building where a big company or a government department with 100 employees or more could move into.
As some readers may have heard, Campbelltown RSL has lodged plans for three high rise buildings of 24, 18 and 14 storeys on its present site.
Council is now apparently supportive as they have finally realised the RSL proposal may be a possible catalyst or circuit breaker for a spurt of new developments – some of which have been in its books for a while.
If that is the case and the RSL gets the green light from the south west planning panel, council will have to get serious about height restrictions across the board.
Some people would like to see them abolished altogether, seeing any limit as arbitrary, but I doubt if council would go down that road.
But whether they go for 20, 30 or 40 storeys, the reality is that the market will decide how tall any buildings will be.
Either way, 50 years after it was declared a city and the electric trains arrived, what Campbelltown needs is more real leadership and less consultants reports.
Otherwise there won’t be much to celebrate in 2068.
A direct line to Parramatta….trains that run on time…..more commuter carparks? The possibilities are endless ??
I remember the day so well as I had grown a beard and had gone to work for the week wearing a top hat and spats and I have a photo of me my late wife Joan Nd the kids all dressed in period costume. I wish I knew how to send you a copy it was a great day.
Travel in drones?