March 2025 Oberon Council Meeting

March 20, 2025

The first item on the agenda of the March 18 meeting of Oberon Council was the swearing in of Michael Crye as the Councillor to replace Jill O'Grady, who had resigned from Council. Everyone welcomed Cr Crye and looks forward to his future contributions to Council's activities.

Following the swearing in ceremony, Council was addressed by Matt Armstrong, Regional Development & Engagement Manager – NBN Local Central NSW, who described the changes coming to the various NBN services over the next few months. The good news is that the fixed wireless serving the outlying parts of town (and O'Connell) has greatly increased speed offerings and better coverage as the area serviced by each tower is now four times as large. The news for people in town is that fibre to the premises is on its way and should be available by September this year. The Sky Muster satellite service is also increasing capacity and speeds for those who can't get either of the other alternatives.

Following the presentation, the floor was opened for questions from the public. One was from Wendy Stanton, wanting to know why she can no longer sell plants from her home. Wendy has a regular stand at the Oberon Markets (and was invited to speak about her plants as part of a Field to Forest producers' forum at the March markets) and sales from her home are really a hobby (she is well known around town for her lawn and garden maintenance business), and as she has been doing this for some years she quite reasonably would like to know what has changed, particularly as she thought she complied with all the legal restrictions for a home-based business. Apparently, however, there is some state legislation restricting this particular activity, although why it took so long for anyone to notice (or complain) is a mystery.

The other questioners asked about matters which were to be addressed by later items in the meeting agenda.

After the questions, the first agenda item is always the report on the Mayor's activities for the previous month. Immediately following that Mayor McKibbin announced that he was introducing a Mayoral Minute that was not on the agenda. This consisted of some stringent criticism of Councillor Helen Hayden and the way she presents on social media. Posts from Cr Hayden going back some years were quoted. There is no doubt that Cr Hayden is quite outspoken at times but she claims that nothing she has done is outside the guidelines for councillor behaviour. Almost certainly we have not heard the last of this.

At the February Council meeting it was noted that Mr Ron Gillard had resigned from the Audit, Risk and Improvement Committee and it was moved that a suitable replacement be sought. As Mr Gillard's circumstances have changed and he is able to continue on the committee, a motion to rescind the February motion was proposed and passed.

A report on the February meeting of the Central NSW Joint Organisation was presented. This committee is made up of representatives of councils across the region and met in Oberon for the first time. Mayor McKibbin reported that the delegates were very impressed with the cleanliness of the Oberon township, the delightful scenery around the town and the facilities at the Community Centre and Library. None of this is news to the people who live here but it's nice to hear it from visitors, particularly visitors with similar responsibilities in their home areas.

Reports were received from the Local Emergency Management Committee and the Local Traffic Committee. Neither contained any surprises.

A Memorandum of Understanding is to be drawn up between Council and the O'Connell Cricket Club to cover maintenance and development of the O'Connell Recreation Ground. The MOU will run from July 2025 to June 2026.

There are various volunteer bodies known as Section 355 Committees and Council has the responsibility to approve memberships of the committees. Details of the volunteers for the committees and  documentation about how the committees are run can be found here. Following the resignation of Jill O'Grady from Council the following Council representatives were declared to replace her:

• Alternate delegate on the Black Springs Community Hall Committee - Cr Frank O'Connor
• Alternate delegate on the Joint Regional Planning Panel - Cr Helen Hayden
• Delegate on the Rural Fire Service Chifley Zone Liaison Committee - Cr Michael Crye
• Delegate on the Central Tablelands Weeds Authority - Cr Katie Graham

A big item on the agenda was a Development Application for a recreational motor cycle track with associated accommodation off Arkstone Road at Isabella.

The application had been submitted with all documentation some time ago and a decision was deferred from the February 2025 Council meeting. There was some concern expressed by Councillors about the sight lines to the entry road, but eventually the DA was approved. You can see everything about the application here.

Council will place the Draft Black Springs Recreation Ground Masterplan on public exhibition for 28 days, following which a report will be provide to Council.

Click for a larger, readable view

The remainder of the meeting consisted of the usual Council department reports which can be seen here.

You can see the agenda for the meeting here (349 pages)

See the recording of the meeting here - Part 1 Part 2

See the minutes of the meeting here

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