MINUTES
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Council Meeting
Tuesday, 13 June 2023
6.30pm
Council Chamber
Level 4, PHIVE
Parramatta Square, Parramatta
PRESENT
The Lord Mayor, Councillor Sameer Pandey and Councillors Phil Bradley, Kellie Darley, Donna Davis, Pierre Esber, Michelle Garrard, Henry Green, Ange Humphries, Cameron Maclean, Paul Noack, Dr Patricia Prociv, Dan Siviero, Georgina Valjak, Donna Wang and Lorraine Wearne.
1. OPENING MEETING
The Lord Mayor, Councillor Pandey, opened the meeting at 6:37pm.
2. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO TRADITIONAL OWNERS OF LAND
The Lord Mayor, acknowledged the Burramattagal people of The Dharug Nation as the traditional owners of this land, and paid respect to their ancient culture and to their elders past, present and emerging.
3. WEBCASTING ANNOUNCEMENT
The Lord Mayor, advised staff and the public that meeting is being recorded and webcast live on Council’s website, in accordance with the Council’s Code of Meeting Practice. The recording will be made available on Council’s website.
4. GENERAL RECORDING OF MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT
As per Council’s Code of Meeting Practice, the recording of the Council Meeting by the public using any device, audio or video, is only permitted with Council permission.
5. APOLOGIES AND APPLICATIONS FOR LEAVE OF ABSENCE OR ATTENDANCE BY AUDIO-VISUAL LINK BY COUNCILLORS
6. CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES
7. DISCLOSURES OF INTEREST
Councillor Esber declared a Pecuniary Interest in Item 16.1 Legal Status Report as at 30 April 2023 for the reason that a relative works for the Applicant in the Class 1 Appeals for 189 Macquarie Street Parramatta. Councillor Esber will leave the meeting and not participate in the consideration and voting on the Item.
8. Minutes of the Lord Mayor
9. Public Forum
There were no registered speakers for this meeting.
10. Petitions
There were no petitions tabled at this meeting.
11. Rescission Motions
There were no recission motions for this meeting.
12. Reports to Council - For Notation
There were no reports for notation.
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RESOLVED Councillor Esber and Councillor Maclean
That Items 13.4, 13.6 and 13.7 are resolved enbloc with the recommendations of the staff being adopted.
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13. Reports to Council – For Council Decision
14. Notices of Motion
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14.3 |
Proposed Review of Council's Circus Policy (Report by Councillor Humphries)
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15. Questions with Notice
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15.2 |
(Report by Councillor Darley)
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4348 |
Soft Plastic Recycling, RecycleSmart and Problem Waste
1. What options are available to City of Parramatta residents to recycle soft plastics?
Staff response:
Council officers are currently investigating options to provide the Parramatta community with a soft plastic recycling option. Should an initiative materialise, Council will roll out promotions through our various media channels to promote this service.
The heightened attention on recycling due to recent occurrences, such as the publication of the "War on Waste" on ABC, the implementation of China's National Sword Policy, and the closure of REDcycle, has led to a greater scrutiny of recycling. Consequently, Council officers are exercising extreme caution and conducting thorough investigations to ensure that any collaborations we engage in do not lead to the disposal of materials in landfills or their accumulation in warehouses.
Council officers understand that a National Plastics Recycling Scheme project is being developed by Australia’s food and grocery manufacturing industry with funding support from the Federal Government. Further, Woolworths, Coles and Aldi have plans to recommence a soft plastics service towards the end of 2023. As more information develop in regard to this matter, Council officers will communicate the updates as required.
Council officers have been educating our community on the importance of avoidance and reducing the consumption of soft plastics, such as shopping at bulk food stores or buying products in recyclable packaging such as cardboard and tins rather than soft plastic. A series of activities have been planned for Plastic Free July. For the time being soft plastics should go in the red lidded garbage bin
2. Is City of Parramatta signing up to the RecycleSmart program?
Staff response:
Council officers have met with RecycleSmart representatives and spoken to other councils that have used this service. It is recommended that Council does not participate in this program due to the concern with their business model of only being a transport service with no certainty of the end market of the materials they are collecting. It is understood the program employs drivers similar to an Uber service who will then take the items to a site that accepts the items without necessarily having an agreement in place.
Council officers is of the view that the cost to participate is not value for money as a number of the waste types, such as paints, batteries, mobile phones and textiles can already be safely recycled across a number of sites within the Parramatta area at no extra cost. Council’s website provides an A to Z directory to find recycling options.
Further, once Council’s Community Recycling Centre is established it will be another channel to safely recycle problematic waste with the aspiration of being the one stop waste solution for Parramatta residents. Staff will provide Councillors with an update at the Councillor workshop booked for 5 June 2023.
3. What can residents currently do with their problem waste?
Staff response:
Residents can safely recycle their problematic waste through our Mobile Community Recycling Service. This service will collect the following items from the resident’s house.
Council provides e-Waste days throughout the year which is advertised on Council’s website, social media channels and on the waste calendar that is distributed to all households. Council also hosts the NSW EPA Household Chemical Clean Out program annually.
Council officers are currently investigating sites to operate a Community Recycling Centre. Staff will provide Councillors with an update at the Councillor workshop booked for 5 June 2023.
Stormwater Network
1. When was the last time Council conducted an audit of the effectiveness of our stormwater network, specifically gross pollutant traps (GPTs)?
2. What were the high-level results of this audit of Council’s GPTs?
Staff response:
Council is committed to reducing gross pollutants in our waterways as part of a whole of catchment approach championed by the Parramatta River Catchment Group.
It is noted this is particularly important as Parramatta is situated downstream of the wider Parramatta River Catchment and as such receives large volumes of litter delivered through our creeks and rivers from surrounding LGA’s.
Council’s Environment and Sustainability team has sought to understand the performance of our gross pollutant traps to ensure they are effectively managed to maximise their environmental performance. In doing so the team engaged consultants Optimal Stormwater to undertake an audit of all of Council’s Gross Pollutant Traps (GPT’s).
The audit was completed in December 2022. The high-level results found that 24% of our GPT’s are in perfect or Good condition, 26% are operational however could be enhanced and 50% and poor or non- operational. Of concern is that 43% of the devices are recommended to be replaced and 23% require major structural works.
The breakdown of the high level results can be found in Attachment 1. Staff are currently working through the detailed audit recommendations to prioritise repair works and replacement/upgrade options.
Housing Supply and Targets in Parramatta
1. There’s been a lot of commentary recently about the need to increase housing supply and whether or not councils in Greater Sydney are meeting their housing targets. Roughly, what increase in housing supply has taken place in the City of Parramatta over the last 5-10 years and what is the forecast increase in housing supply in the LGA over the next 5-10 years?
2. Is Council on track to meet the housing supply targets set by the NSW Government, and other government authorities?
Staff response:
City of Parramata met its 2016-21 housing target by 97% through the delivery (construction) of 20,930 dwellings. With regards to the current (2021-26) target, CoP has already met that by 98% by providing capacity for 23,279 dwellings, and there remains another 36 months remaining in this period.
Some important background: housing targets should correspond with their assigned ‘period’ and the ‘source’ of the housing target. The table below summarises this.
Notes – *Via completed (delivered) dwellings as at 30 May 2023 – see development pipeline diagram. **Via finalised LEPs (capacity) as at 30 May 2023 – see development pipeline diagram. ***Via PPs/Precincts in train (potential) as at 30 May 2023 – see development pipeline diagram.
The Development pipeline:
It is important to note that these figures are current as at 31 May 2023, and are expected to change as in train Planning Proposals are finalised.
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Note: Prior to moving into Closed Session, the Lord Mayor invited members of the public gallery to make representations as to why any item had been included in Closed Session.
No member of the gallery wished to make representations.
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RESOLVED Councillor Noack and Councillor Maclean
That members of the press and public be excluded from the meeting of the Closed Session and access to the correspondence and reports relating to the items considered during the course of the Closed Session be withheld. This action is taken in accordance with Section 10A(s) of the Local Government Act, 1993 as the items listed come within the following provisions:- 1 Legal Status Report as at 30 April 2023. (D08897330) - This report is confidential in accordance with section 10A (2) (g) of the Local Government Act 1993 as the report contains advice concerning litigation, or advice that would otherwise be privileged from production in legal proceedings on the ground of legal professional privilege.
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16.1 |
Legal Status Report as at 30 April 2023 (Report of Solicitor)
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RESOLVED Councillor Prociv and Councillor Maclean
a) That Council note the Legal Status Report as at 30 April 2023.
b) Further, that in the interests of transparency and good governance, Council publish an appropriate version of the monthly Legal Status Report on its website, excluding any legally privileged content, for the information of the community.
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Note:
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Councillor Esber disclosed a Pecuniary Interest, Councillor Esber left the meeting at 9:16pm and did not return.
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4351 |
RESOLVED Councillor Noack and Councillor Wearne
That the meeting revert to Open Session, time being 9:19pm.
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17. REPORTS OF RESOLUTIONS PASSED IN CLOSED SESSION
The Chief Executive Officer read out the resolutions for Item 16.1.
18. CONCLUSION OF MEETING
The meeting closed at 9.21pm.
This page and the preceding 19 pages are the minutes of the Ordinary Council Meeting held on Tuesday, 13 June 2023 and confirmed on Monday, 26 June 2023.
Chairperson