May 2024 Oberon Council Meeting

May 23, 2024

Two presentations preceded the May meeting of Oberon Council.

The first was on behalf of the Central West Forestry Hub and was based on a report prepared for the Hub by BDO EconSearch and the University of Canberra which was published at the end of 2023 and indicated the size of the industry. Oberon LGA was selected as a case study, and the areas looked at were not just production (just less than a million cubic metres of timber) but also the economic, employment and social aspects of the industry. You can see the report here. and the presentation slides here.

The second presentation was by Robert Snoch, President of Oberon Against Wind Towers, and addressed the disappointment that OAWT felt at the Council's lack of action in trying to get a heritage order placed on the Avenue of Trees at O'Connell. You can see Mr Snoch's presentation here.

See also: The wind tower conversation heats up

Apart from the usual Council business discussed at regular meetings there were two topics which could be of particular interest to residents.

Oberon Council currently maintains 16 parks with playground equipment.  An examination of the parks by Council staff resulted in a recommendation that six of these parks had equipment which was damaged, worn and possibly even dangerous and that the play equipment should be removed from these parks.

The six parks are:

• Miss Wilson (off Tarana Road)
• Glyndwr Avenue (North)
• Glyndwr Avenue (South)
• Bligh Street
• Buckley Crescent
• Armstrong Place

After much discussion it was moved that instead of immediately removing the playground equipment, costings for refurbishment and repair of the six playgrounds should be prepared and presented to a future Council meeting. You can see the report about equipment conditions here.

See also: Media Release - Oberon Playgrounds

The other matter of community interest is that Council have prepared a strategy for the installation of electric vehicle charging stations. Currently there are only two public charging places in Oberon - the Tesla charger at the rear of the Visitor Information Centre and at the RSL (which cannot charge Tesla cars). As the number of electric vehicles on the roads increases the number of EVs coming to Oberon will also increase and the ability to recharge the cars can be an important input into decisions about tourism destinations. The strategy will be on display for comments for 28 days and you can read it here.

The rest of the meeting was the usual collection of reports from the various parts of the Council. There is a provision for Councillors to introduce motions that are not on the Agenda as matters of Urgent Business. Councillor Hayden wanted to propose a motion that Council immediately start the process of applying a heritage order to the O'Connell Avenue of Trees but a procedural issue prevented her motion from being heard.

The full agenda for the meeting can be found here.

A recording of the meeting is available in two parts - Part 1 and Part 2.

Minutes of the meeting can be found here.

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