To ENGAGE our electorate on local issues.
 

·       Strongly advocated for a change in engaging the local community across the northern beaches for feedback and ideas via media, workshops, community events and more resulting in a 94% satisfaction rate.

·       Continued to encourage online consultation with the community on items that concern them which grew our digital audience by 400% in engagement in one year.

·       Continued and grew face to face consultation and information forums.

·       This was one of the important factors in Council winning first prize in the Government Contact Centre Excellence Awards, which recognise government organisations from across Australia and New Zealand that go above and beyond their duty in a bid to increase customer service and satisfaction.

·       Won Excellence in Communication in 2014.

·       Our Councillors spent considerable time on local issues by visiting residents at their homes, businesses, attending community committees, attending meetings,emailing, phone calls listening to their concerns and issues and bringing them to staff's attention.

To CONTINUE the practice of assessing DAs using a Development Assessment Panel model, thereby excluding Councillors from a decision-making role in the DA process.

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TOWN PLANNING

·       Successes in the refusal of inappropriate development in the LGA

·       Effective eradication of influence from developers and real estate agents to council

·       Continued to make improvement to streamline the DA process for residential house builders, businesses, etc.

·       Support of the Independent Internal Ombudsman and of the Warringah Development Assessment Panel in determining DA's that affect the community.

 To Maintain Council Services and IMPROVE necessary Infrastructure.

·       Reduced asset backlog by focussing on renewal of assets eg: Belrose, Brookvale & Narrabeen Childcare Centre upgrades, Belrose Library, upgraded various surf clubs, Community Centre upgrades (Curl Curl, Cromer, Narrabeen Tramshed, Collaroy, Long Reef etc), Warringah Aquatic Centre grounds more family friendly, rockpool upgrades, upgrades planned and delivered on regional and suburban playgrounds with the community choosing final designs.

·       Additional street sweeping

·       Social media penetration encouraged to communicate with residents for feedback and suggestions

·       Website upgrade (all council projects expenditure online, increasing transparency and accountability to the community)

·       Doubled budget for footpaths,increased footpath renewal budget plus widening of footpaths

·       Added more dedicated bike paths and pushed for more bike lanes when planning road infrastructure

·       Used additional surplus funds for smaller footpath projects and brought footpath projects forward to address changing needs.

·       Improved sporting fields (created new fields; synthetic and turf, improved quality of fields, investigating shortfalls and how to meet it.

·       Planned, funded and completed the final 2 stages Narrabeen Lagoon Trail, opening up a complete circuit around the lagoon. The project involved building new bridges, 2km of new boardwalk, reserve and carpark upgrades, a boat ramp, toilet upgrades, park furniture, rest stops, vantage outlook points, heritage restoration, environmental protection and substantial planting of local species. Middle Creek Reserve was upgraded as part of the project, with improved facilities and utilising water sensitive design to filter stormwater runoff from the carpark before it goes into the Lagoon. 60% of the project was funded by Council.

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To ENCOURAGE good residential and commercial development.

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·      Worked on Master plans for Freshwater, Brookvale & Dee Why

       At Dee Why – we activated a vision and design of creating a larger green space in Dee Why for Walter Gors Park. This included street upgrades (wider footpaths, Redman Road activation designs), connecting beach to town centre, upgrade and addition of bike paths, public art funding, decided final design of PCYC and funding. 

·       Advocated for changes to SEPPs to make them more in line with council DA,

·       Advocated to develop an Affordable Housing policy

·       Pushed towards minimum 10% affordable housing for any new rezoning, make any affordable housing  provider provide a plan for more than 10 years.

·       Continue to make improvement to streamline the DA process for residential house builders, businesses, etc.

·       Streamlined DA process for tree removal

·       Access to much more information online (to increase transparency)

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To PROTECT our beaches, parklands and natural assets from inappropriate development and the potential impacts of climate change.

 

·       Adopted the first Coastal Zone Management Plan

·       Refined DCPs

·       Flood studies (upgraded pipes to meet 100 year flood)

·       Emergency Response Team partnership with emergency services to respond to crisis situations

·       Lobbied the State Government for beach renourishment funding (for protection of natural assets, roads and parks) and accurate reports on climate change, sea level rise, etc.

·       Completed and funded the Collaroy Stormwater Outlet

·       Finalised and upgraded flood mitigation infrastructure to reduce flood risk at Dee Why Town Centre under Oaks Avenue.

·       Councillors were actively involved in the Narrabeen, Dee Why, Curl Curl & Manly Lagoon Committees

·       Completed upgrades to paths and infrastructure to Stony Range Botanical Gardens

·       Actively encouraged more citizen science projects, involved with community tree planting and bush regeneration days run by council and community groups

·       Supported 3 community gardens with the newest one opening in Curl Curl after community consultation.

·       Mayor and Councillors attended various Friends of the Bush events to support and promote the work of volunteers

·       Worked on Bushland Regeneration budget discussions to give a higher priority 

·       Curl Curl Beach and dog park Master plan/ Coastal walk

·       Narrabeen Trail

·       Narrabeen State Park

·       Bush Regeneration Strategic Plan (coordinated, strategic approach to bush regeneration and prioritised the areas most in need)

·       Finalised the Manly Warringah War Memorial Plan of Managment

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·       Encouraged the Artist in residence programs

·       Created the Creative Space in Curl Curl addressing a need in the creative community. This new space ha won multiple awards.

·       Sculpture walk at Long Reef

·       La Lune event in Collaroy

·       Created a dedicated Arts and Culture role to implement the arts plan

·       Developed the Cultural Plan for the area in collaboration with the creative community

·       Supported local artists events

·       Warringah arts prize

·       Glen Street Sculpture Walk

·       Glen St Hub (created new library, acitivated art space and decided the direction of the Glen St theatre upgrade)

To UPGRADE our sporting facilities.

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·       New synthetic fields built (Cromer, St Matthews Farm)

·       Significant and ongoing lighting upgrades

·       Grant funding $200K to local sporting groups (cofounding model)

·       Loan policy (guarantor on loans)

·       Melwood synthetic playing fields

·       Upgrade Lionel Watts, Killarney Heights

·       Planned upgrade of St Matts farm amenity block

·       PCYC

·       Continuous upgrades of netball courts, cricket pitches/nets, amenity blocks

·       Completion of Manly Dam Mountain Bike Track upgrade

·       Completion of the Queenscliff Rockpool Restoration

·       Completion of Dee Why Beach viewing tower and lifeguard hut building

·       Created a multi use sports facility for tennis, futsal, squash & soccer at the Warringah Recreation Centre in North Manly.

To ENHANCE the role of community groups.

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SENIORS

·       Kaddy bus funding

·       Easy Transport (provide funding and free parking for all their buses)

·       Seniors’ Month funding and activities

·       Training and courses (eg computer pals)

·       Recognising senior and disability need in master plans eg, sufficient rest points planned

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DISABILITY

·       $6.4m on playground strategy to make all playgrounds all ability and inclusive

·       Collaroy all ability and inclusive precinct

·       Tendered out digitisation of Council records to Fighting Chance
(providing real jobs for real people)

·       Bush regeneration partnership with Bushlink

·       Kaddy bus funding

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TO STRENGTHEN OUR NEIGHBOURHOODS

·       Utilised the SRG (Strategic Reference Groups) model to provide open grass root communication with Councillors and Council staff.

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YOUTH

·       Created a dynamic Youth Strategy (which resulted in youth from regional areas visiting to recreated in their own communities – Youth SRG

·       Social Media/Online engagement - KALOF app designed by our youth for their needs. (The app created by a group of northern beaches young people won Silver at the W³ Awards from the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts in New York.)

·       Multiple Youth forums

·       Youth focussed consultation

·       Youth information nights

·       Youth activities – band nights, arts, films, etc.

·       PCYC - Youth input vital in creating a space that would be productive to their needs.
 

CULTURALLY DIVERSE

·       Created a Multiculural Strategy to assist our culturally diverse population (28.1% of residents being born overseas)

·       Warringah was home to Australia’s largest Tibetan population, however the exact numbers are difficult to measure as most have their country of origin listed as China.

·    Encouraged Council’s Community and Cultural Development Grants Program with grants to the Tibetan Learning Centre and a Tibetan Children’s Camp in recent years. Through the competitive grants program, Council has contributed financially to events such as Eurofest, the Sydney Multicultural Festival and the Tibetan Losar Festival.

To WORK alongside and support local business.
 

·       Created a business and economic development role

·       Economic plan

·       Online accountability of all council projects

·       Assisted local business in tendering for council procurement

·       Being a conduit for and actively supporting chambers of commerce

·       Support and build partnerships with Chambers of Commerce

·       Run courses in how to tender for council procurement

·       Mentoring opportunities and programs for start ups.

​·       Business specific information nights