Willoughby City Council Mayor, Tanya Taylor says the organisation’s 2022-2023 Annual Report details its high levels of service and infrastructure delivery despite an increasingly challenging financial climate.
Mayor Taylor (pictured) said the report highlights community projects including the St Leonards to Chatswood shared pathway and an on-going commitment to nurturing the Willoughby bushland setting with great successes in bush care and tree planting.
“I take immense pride in the services we provide to our diverse community. From initiatives like our award winning ‘Hi Neighbours’ program that connects our many apartment dwellers along with our vibrant events including our Senior’s Festival and Emerge Festival,” she said.
“We delivered the new community garden as part of the Warners Park masterplan, a safer pedestrian precinct around Royal North Shore Hospital and we have made great progress on the Artarmon Local Centre upgrade.”
She said the year also saw new levels of community engagement on projects like the Artarmon and Naremburn Local Centre upgrades, as well as initiatives to bolster resilience and inclusion in the community with a range of events and cultural and education programs including the Inspire to Lead initiative and the development of a Reconciliation Action Plan.
Other highlights from the report include:
- New rolling programs to upgrade recreation facilities and expand the urban tree canopy across Willoughby;
- New public square at Bellambi Street Northbridge;
- Participation in the multi-council $1 million Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) grant-funded project, which trialled and learned from ‘food only’ collections from apartments;
- 2023 Chatswood Year of the Rabbit Festival, which injected an additional $10.2 million into the CBD from visitors, with $5.8 million spent on dining and entertainment;
- Commenced implementing the Disability Inclusion Action Plan 2022-2026;
- Received the Premier’s Multicultural Community Medal for Local Government Business Excellence for our MOSAIC Multicultural Centre;
- Finalised the new Local Environmental Plan (LEP) and Development Control Plan (DCP) to meet housing targets, increase affordable housing, improve density at transport hubs and address environmental considerations;
- Established seven Advisory Committees to seek input from our community to assist in the development and delivery of Council’s strategic priorities.
Also detailed in the report: Council responded to 45,223 help and service calls, delivered 142 projects and capital works, engaged and consulted with 5,843 people, held 36 visual arts exhibitions and the highest visitation on record with a combined 19,900 visits to art spaces, repaired and re-sheeted 50,000m2 of road, constructed or improved 9,500m2 of footpaths, planted 342 street trees, over 680,000 visits to all libraries, over 8,000 residents attended 137 environmental and community resilience activities as part of the Live Well in Willoughby program, continued to operate a range of services including Willoughby Leisure Centre, maintained 197 parks, gardens and sporting grounds.
The 2022-2023 Annual Report is available to view here.
