The Pitt Town community has issues, but instead of whinging on social media, residents invited Hawkesbury councillors to tour their suburb so they could show them the problems.
On Wednesday, August 16 Council’s Mayor Mary Lyons-Buckett and general manager Peter Conroy and councillors Peter Reynolds, Danielle Wheeler and Nathan Zamprogno hopped aboard the Peppercorn bus and took a tour of 26 locations around the town where the community wanted action.
Organised by Pitt Town Progress Association, and attended also by Pitt Town Residents’ Group, the tour explained the problems the township has with stormwater, local flooding, community facilities and roads, including the dangerous intersections of Chatham and Eldon, Bathurst and Eldon and where Pitt Town Bottoms and Saunders roads intersect with Pitt Town Road.
The tour also briefed Council representatives on state government issues that residents were concerned about including the widening of Pitt Town Road, the long-promised Pitt Town bypass and Mulgrave station carpark upgrades.
PTPA members also voiced their concerns about the apparent failure of developers to deliver on the river walk, river access, a boat ramp, road infrastructure and sporting fields.
Pitt Town Residents’ Group member Stacy O’Toole said the 26-stop tour “was a really good, positive exercise”.
“A lot of issues were created by the new development, and things not done by the developer,” she said. “Such as the stormwater – a really big retention pond has been built in the middle of the sporting field area – there will now only be room for two sporting fields, not three. All stormwater was meant to be dealt with on site [in the new estate] but residents on Airstrip Road, Hall Street and Wells Street have been impacted by stormwater issues.”
Stops on the three-hour tour included Brinsley Park, Redfern Place, the ANZAC Day Memorial and Friendship Bridge. “The list of priorities was developed in close collaboration with the widest possible cross-section of the community,” PTPA president Peter Ryan said.
Hawkesbury Mayor Mary Lyons-Buckett said “we really must give credit to the Pitt Town Progress Association, the Pitt Town Residents Group and Pitt Town residents in general for being so proactive in their research and presentation of the needs of their local area by hosting this tour”.
“Council is always ready and willing to listen and to act on reasonable needs and their case has been well put for further consideration.”
PTPA members on the tour were Steve Brown, Graham Marks, Vince Rayfield, Kevin O’Connor, Gordon Douglass, David Burgon and president Peter Ryan. Pitt Town Residents Group members who attended were John Hagar and Stacy O’Toole.