Residents grab chance to catch up

More than 40 Tweed residents took the opportunity to chat face-to-face with their elected members when the inaugural Councillors' Community Catch-up was staged at the Tweed Heads markets last Sunday.

The Kennedy Drive upgrade, water meters, rubbish services and a proposed new police station for Kingscliff were among the topics raised by visitors to the Council stall.

Councillors Warren Polglase, Dot Holdom, Mayor Kevin Skinner and Joan van Lieshout attended the market stall at the Tweed Police Citizens Youth Club.

"The Community Catch-ups are a new initiative to make our elected members more accessible to the public, in response to feedback we received during last year's consultation campaign for the Community Strategic Plan," according to Council General Manager Mike Rayner, who was also present at Sunday's stall.

"The inaugural Catch-up showed how they will be an extremely valuable exercise to enable the councillors to hear the concerns and opinions of residents and to really discuss ideas to take the Tweed forward.

"They are one of the key initiatives in the Community Engagement Strategy adopted by Council last September, to effectively involve the community in public discussion about the Tweed's future and to ensure the elected members are as well informed as possible when making their decisions."

Mr Rayner said while attendances at Sunday's market might have been slightly down because it was Father's Day, the interaction between residents and councillors at the stall was a positive step forward.

"Many of the residents who attended the stall provided very constructive input and Council is already acting upon feedback it received," Mr Rayner said.

"It also enabled the councillors to shed some light on Council activities.

"It opened another channel of communication and I anticipate we will receive an equally positive response when the Chillingham Markets host the next Councillors' Community Catch-up on Sunday 13 November from 9am to 1pm."