Unity ticket
Hostilities between Newcastle City Councillors over light rail ended last week with a Lord Mayoral Minute on transport policy which attracted unanimous support. It represented a moment in time when the divisions of the past were left behind and unanimity descended upon the chamber.
And with that, a collective sigh of relief from the citizenry could be heard from Wallsend to Nobbys and from Beresfield to Merewether.
The political fight is finally over and the Lord Mayor achieved a famous victory for consensus. Even opponents of the NSW Government’s revitalisation plans have now acknowledged that a modern light rail system is coming to the City Centre.
Attention is now squarely focussed on getting the best outcome for the city, rather than protecting partisan policy. Because the fundamental conflict has been removed for the first time in decades, previously warring factions are now on the same page.
A set of policy priorities, which mirror those of the Property Council, have been agreed to by all Councillors as necessary to guarantee the sustainability of Newcastle’s public transport system.
The first of those priorities is to deliver market certainty by implementing the key transport recommendation made by industry nearly three years ago; namely, to bring forward a Hunter Transport Plan that interlocks with the Newcastle Urban Renewal Strategy
This is the imperative that sits at the heart of the Lord Mayoral Minute which was unanimously agreed to by all Councillors.
An integrated plan for all modes of transport is made more urgent by the completion of major urban renewal projects such as the Newcastle Courthouse redevelopment, University of Newcastle CBD campus and ICON Central Apartment Tower.
Other imperatives remain to create a city centre that is authentically Novocastrian. Chief among those are the creation of a Hunter Transport Body which allows the region to determine public transport outcomes, including future-proofing light rail connections to key activity centres such as Broadmeadow and Callaghan.