Mayor gives Council’s report card an ‘A+’

Mayor of The Hills Shire, Dr Michelle Byrne, has commended Council’s performance in the last financial year, and announced a range of exciting new initiatives for the future.

The Hills Shire Council’s Annual Report describes the organisation’s performance over a number of outcome areas including leadership, communities, balanced growth, the environment and the local economy.

“I’m extremely proud of our achievements across the past financial year and as popularly-elected Mayor, I’m looking forward to rolling my sleeves up and getting on with delivering the essential infrastructure our community needs for the future,” Mayor Byrne said.

Some of the highlights from 2016-2017 included launching The Hills Shire Library Service’s new online borrowing system, adopting the Disability Inclusion Action Plan, maintaining more than 938km of roadways and completing upgrades to the Baulkham Hills Town Centre.

“Our financial outcome for the past year is particularly pleasing,” Mayor Byrne said.

“Once again we have maintained a strong credit rating and achieved an operating surplus of more than $127 million.

“We planned for our future by purchasing land for open space, and spent almost $10 million on building new parks or improving the ones we already have.

“And an impressive amount of work was carried out on footpaths, bridges and roads with over $26 million spent on improvements or construction,” Mayor Byrne added.

Mayor Byrne said the year ahead promised to be a productive one, with key projects designed to reflect community priorities.

“We are planning projects that will even further improve the quality of life we all enjoy in The Hills – with the refurbishment of Waves pool, the development of a strong concept design for Castle Hill Showground and the construction of a new 386 seat theatre at Castle Grand firmly in our sights,” Mayor Byrne said.

“And it’s gratifying to see our efforts in providing more open space coming to fruition with the finalisation of a number of key sports field projects including Caddies Creek playing fields, Arnold Avenue sports grounds and the completion of the Shire’s first synthetic fields at Bernie Mullane Sports Complex,” she said.

Mayor Byrne said that as well as building new projects, Council would continue to maintain existing community assets like improving roads, footpaths and street lighting, protecting the environment through effective storm water and sustainability projects and supporting the State Emergency Services (SES) and Rural Fire Services (RFS).

For more information, find the Hills Shire Plan on Council’s website at www.thehills.nsw.gov.au