November 2024 Oberon Council Meeting

November 28, 2024

The November meeting was the first real Council meeting following the elections (the previous meeting had been mainly to swear in Councillors and elect the Mayor and Deputy Mayor).

Your rates at work - keeping the Oberon Common looking beautiful.

Numbers in brackets below are lthe relevant pages in the meeting agenda.

The meeting started with several motions and to nobody's surprise, several related to Council's relationship with TAG/Stromlo and The Pines Windfarm over the proposed wind towers in the nearby state forests. Council will be having regular meetings with the promoters and hopefully the community will be kept informed of progress. (34), (35), (38)

There was much discussion about creating a footpath along O'Connell Road at O'Connell (39), with several concerns raised about how this might affect speed limits through the town and where pedestrian crossings might be located. As investigation work is currently being carried out for a footpath next to the road bridge over the Fish River this matter will certainly be raised again in the future. There was also discussion about the need for weed control at the Black Springs Recreation Reserve (41).

Also up for discussion was the Council's contribution to the construction of a new headquarters for the Rural Fire Service. As this would probably take the form of providing the land for the building there were concerns about where the land would be located, the potential loss in income should the land be withheld from sale and ownership of the land in the future (RFS or Council) (50). There was a massive (357 pages) series of reports relating to work needing to be done to playgrounds around Oberon.

See also: Media Release - Oberon Playgrounds

Of interest to everyone in the shire, the State of the Shire report was tabled.

The final part of these meetings is closed to the public and media, as it includes commercial-in-confidence matters like tenders and other matters like rate relief and hardship requests from residents. This month included the following:

This is obviously of great interest to Oberon Matters, and we eagerly await the outcome of the discussions. There are rumours circulating around town but nothing can be known for certain until an official announcement is made.

The agenda for the meeting can be seen here (634 pages!)

A recording of the meeting can be seen here (3:35:0)

---