On Tuesday 16 November, the Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Post hosted the Meet the Candidates forum for Hornsby Shire Council at the Asquith Golf Club. The forum was also live streamed via our Facebook page and broadcasted on Triple H FM 100.1.
In attendance were incumbent councillors Warren Waddell (Ward A), Mick Marr (Ward A), Janelle McIntosh (Ward B) and Emma Heyde (Ward C) as well as the mayor, the Hon. Philip Ruddock. Also in attendance were new candidates Benjamin Caswell (Ward A), Sallianne McClelland (Ward B) and Verity Greenwood (Ward C).
Councillors Nathan Tilbury and Vince del Gallego provided apologies for their attendance. The forum was moderated by former long-time Hornsby Shire Mayor, Nick Berman.
The evening commenced with each candidate providing a short two-minute speech as to why they were running for council before moving to a question-and-answer session involving questions submitted by members of the public.
The success of commercial centres across the Shire was a key issue raised by the public. There was a consensus from all candidates that whilst a few town centres in the shire were doing well, others were struggling.
“C Ward is a mixed bag. Some areas are doing extremely well whilst others are not,” Cr Emma Heyde said.
Pennant Hills town centre in particular was raised by several candidates, including Cr Janelle McIntosh and Mayor Philip Ruddock, as needing further improvements to its planning and use of space as well as establishing a Chamber of Commerce.
“Where we have an active Chamber of Commerce, those areas have greater life,” said Mayor Ruddock.
“Pennant Hills has a long way to go as it does not have a Chamber of Commerce.”
Also raised on the night was the issue of transportation in the area. Again, there was consensus, despite their political differences, from all candidates that public transport in the Shire was inadequate and that there was a need to remove cars from the road.
Cr Janelle McIntosh argued that the Shire was missing an active transport strategy.
“We need to be talking about walking and cycling and making better connections to enable people to do just that,” said Cr McIntosh.
“You can’t look at this on a ward-by-ward basis. It must be on a Shire basis.”
The new lead Liberal candidate for Ward C, Verity Greenwood, raised the need for residents to carpool.
“We still have too many cars on the road,” said Greenwood.
“People need to learn to carpool. We need less cars and more use of public transport.”
The issue of affordable housing did create a bit more of a divide regarding the mechanism of achieving it. There was however unanimous agreement to have diversity in housing with people across professions including policing, education and aged care.
“If they are going to be working in our Shire, they should be able to live in our Shire,” said new lead Liberal candidate for Ward B, Sallianne McClelland.
Cr McIntosh, Mayor Ruddock and Ben Caswell raised the need for affordable housing to not come at a cost to the council.
“We need to look at the best option with no cost to council,” said Caswell.
With polling day looming, an interesting election in the Shire awaits. Will the Liberals maintain their majority thanks to their mayoral casting vote? Or will the Greens, Labor and Independents break their hold on power? All will be revealed on December 4.
