Here’s what you may have missed this past quarter

Tonight, Wollongong City Council endorsed March’s Quarterly Review Statement, a document which outlines Council’s progress towards the goals in the Delivery Program 2022-2026 and Operational Plan 2023-2024.

This report showcases the amount of work delivered by Council across the City of Wollongong between January and March. It doesn’t just highlight the milestones of key infrastructure projects, but also captures things like library book acquisitions, community events and footpath renewals.

Housing and affordable housing was another big focus this past quarter. Now passing the 12-month mark since endorsing the Wollongong Housing Strategy, in February 2024 Council noted the progress report for the strategy which showed that Council is progressing on its affordable housing commitments.

This progress report also included Council’s considered response to the NSW Government’s housing reforms. Council provided “in principle” support for more housing around suitable stations and centres, noting that further work was required to make sure that new developments are appropriately designed and serviced to meet the needs of the community.

Read more about Council’s response in the media release: ‘Right house for the right location’.

Wollongong City Council General Manager (Acting) Renee Campbell said that the quarterly review statement was one of the ways Council kept the community updated on major work and Council’s daily do.

“There is so much work that Council does for our community that often goes unseen and it’s important to us that our residents know what we’re doing across the board to improve their city,’’ Ms Campbell said.

“This report highlights our recent work including Council’s adoption of the Wollongong City Libraries Strategy and supported our community’s vibrant cultural life by holding events and programs that celebrated Multicultural March, Seniors Week Festival, Youth Week and Clean Up Australia Day.

“We continued to advocate for West Dapto and we successfully secured a total of $9.6M infrastructure funding, including $9M from the Federal Government’s ‘Priority Community Infrastructure Program’ that will be used for Stage 1 of the Darkes Road Sporting and Community Hub project. That’s a fantastic result that will help us cater for the community’s existing and future sporting needs.

“Our advocacy work continued at NSW Parliament House where a Council-led event was held that pitched our city as a place where business and lifestyle could grow together to over 160 people who represent the property sector, investors, business community and government.’’

At the same time, Council continues to focus on business-as-usual. That includes things like cleaning streets and public spaces, mowing sportsgrounds, parks, and playgrounds, repairing roads and footpaths, building, and maintaining community facilities and cleaning our pools.

Wollongong City Lord Mayor Councillor Gordon Bradbery AM said that this work continued beyond the first quarter as Council started April in disaster recovery mode, responding to the city-wide damage caused by the April 2024 flooding event.

“Over the past few months, we’ve been phasing our response to facilitate the city’s recovery. Our immediate response saw Council support flood impacted residents with on-call household cleanups and the mass clearing of debris from our roads, footpaths and gutters,” Cr Bradbery said.

“Where the energy of the city was on immediate safety and cleaning, we’re now moving onto more long-term phases of recovery. We’re at a stage where we’re closely assessing and identifying priorities for action across local infrastructure, beaches, buildings, footpaths and waterways.

“This work will take some time as much of the work is complex and cannot be tackled alone by Council. We will continue to work closely with the NSW Reconstruction Authority as they support Wollongong as a natural disaster recovery area. In the meantime, we ask for our community’s patience as we work as quickly as possible to address issues caused by the flood.”

A snapshot of some of our recent work

• Worked with volunteers on dune restoration at City Beach and East Corrimal
• Offered an enhanced summer cleansing program which included the introduction of new Container Deposit Scheme (CDS) bins to reduce the number of cans and bottles entering landfill
• Council tourist parks saw a combined total of 45,500 nights stayed
• We continue to work towards our goal of net-zero emissions, by investing in electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure and continuing to transition Council’s fleet to EVs, and progressing the review of sustainable development controls for future developments
• We welcomed new artists in residence at Creative Wollongong Studios
• Held a number of exhibitions across multiple spaces including the Wollongong Art Gallery, Wollongong Library, and the Curio Gallery
• Purchased approximately 1,000 new books for the Wollongong City Libraries growing collection
• Activated MacCabe Park and Dapto Town Centre through the Safer Cities program with free outdoor movies, music and yoga to help make these spaces feel safer for women and gender diverse people
• Work nearing completion on the sports field lighting upgrade at Rex Jackson Sports Fields
• Work underway on the Beaton Park tennis court upgrades
• Opened a new, dedicated Jewish burial area at Kembla Grange
• Continued to work with the NSW government to deliver Safer Routes to School Program
• Repaired the Piccadilly Centre pathway.