MAYOR’S MESSAGE

It’s sobering to think that at the end of this reporting period, Greater Sydney including Hornsby Shire, was again in lockdown as the COVID virus spread amid the population, causing immense upheaval to so many lives.

And that after unprecedented bushfires and floods, too, threatened lives, homes and businesses. Despite these formidable challenges, all the evidence indicates that our community has remained connected, quietly optimistic, and has shown great resourcefulness and adaptability throughout.

There is now across the Shire, perhaps because of those trials, an even stronger emphasis on preserving a healthy environment and promoting sustainability and community resilience. Nowhere was this more evident than in the extraordinary community response to Council’s street tree-planting program.

That remarkable effort, in which more than 2,200 selfless community volunteers worked alongside Council staff, resulted in 30,000 native trees going into the

Shire’s soil in less than two years.

That is possibly a national record for any local government area and justifiably a source of great local pride.

In countless other ways, both great and small, our community has demonstrated a renewed confidence in the future of this wonderful place. Whether by setting a State record in recycling half a tonne of old phones and phone components during the national MobileMuster drive. Or by the civic spirit shown in the hundreds of carefully thoughtout public submissions received through Council’s ‘Have Your Say’ community engagement channels.

By the resilience of the Shire’s small-business sector, the energy of our thriving arts sector, our countless dedicated volunteers, and in so many other ways, too. Hornsby Shire Council shares in the community’s optimism. Despite the unprecedented difficulties confronting us, Council has maintained a sustainable financial position, completed the great majority of the projects mapped out in its capital works delivery program, and has continued to deliver its many, many services to the community either directly or online. We now look forward to getting on with many other exciting projects for the future. Among these are the ambitious Hornsby Park and Westleigh Park master plans. The largest single project ever undertaken by Hornsby Shire Council, Hornsby Park is being created on the site of the former Hornsby Quarry, with the first stage to open in 2024. Already being called the ‘Centennial Park of the North’, Hornsby Park will feature some 60 hectares of bushland and open space preserving a host of features of historical and community interest including early settler relics, State heritage-listed items and the existing Hornsby Aquatic & Leisure Centre. The park will also have spectacular new key elements such as a ‘Canopy Skywalk’, walking tracks, passive recreation spaces including green open space and bushland areas, and adventure and waterbased recreation opportunities, particularly for our younger residents. This excellent outcome followed conscientious consultation with the community, the feedback expressing a high level of support for the draft master plan’s vision for the park, particularly its balance of ‘active’ and ‘passive’ recreation and its restoring and protecting the natural environment. The Westleigh Park project, too, aims to create a major parkland with spaces for play and sporting activities, and a choice of ‘unstructured recreation experiences including mountain biking, walking and cycling while conserving important bushland areas. Like Hornsby Park, Westleigh Park is envisaged not as a single-purpose facility – rather, it would offer a range of active and passive recreation opportunities, including community-based sport, school and club athletics, cycling and mountain biking, informal exercising and walking, and a children’s playground among other attractions. Adoption of the Westleigh Park draft master plan has always been conditional on community support and that it provides a good balance of active and passive recreation while restoring and protecting the natural environment. Council will be further engaging with key stakeholders over the coming months as they work to finalise the draft master plan. Other noteworthy Council initiatives underway include implementing the Hornsby Local Housing Strategy, developing planning controls for the Hornsby Town Centre, improving active transport and on-demand bus services for Cherrybrook, developing a Coastal Management Program for the Hawkesbury River and its tributaries, and many other initiatives. In closing, I would like to thank my fellow Hornsby Shire Councillors for their dedication and many services for the community and acknowledge the professionalism, devotion to duty and hard work of Council’s staff and management. It has been a tough twelve months. But I cannot imagine any of us wishing to swap places with any other community in the world.

Philip Ruddock AO

Mayor of Hornsby Shire Council