Councillor Matt Gould | Public figure
Councillor Matt Gould
Phone: +61 427 936 471
Reviews
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25.01.2022 West out of Camden atop of a hill , Lies the peaceful little settlement called Orangeville 'Twas here that the farmers grew their much cherished fruit , Oranges... apples pears tasty of this no refute , Vegetables crops and hay where grown with great care, Not to mention all the dairy farms that flourished out there , Sad to think now that all of this is gone , All that’s left is a few old buildings and memories bygone , Just the other day though reminiscing as I slowly drove . I crossed the paddock that was once our old Orange grove ,I swore I heard dear old Pop saying take her away , That’s another trailer full of Oranges Kenny lets knock off for the day See more
25.01.2022 Delighted to be returning officer tonight at the annual general meeting of Warragamba Silverdale Neighbourhood Centre Inc. Congratulations to the new committee and thanks to the outgoing committee for their outstanding dedication and service to the Warragamba and Silverdale communities. The neighbourhood centre is such an important support service for the area, and has been even more so over the past 12 months with the various challenges we’ve faced.
24.01.2022 The Bureau of Meteorology has forecasted some thunderstorms and unpredictable weather over the next couple of days, this weather could bring large hail, large v...olumes of water and strong winds. Take the time today to prepare your property by securing loose items around your property, giving your roof a quick check and trim back your branches and trees. Our volunteers will be on standby ready to assist you when the call comes through. If you require emergency assistance during floods, storms & tsunamis call 132 500, if you require immediate help contact 000.
23.01.2022 Misters are back on from Monday
22.01.2022 From The Project tonight. Raising Warragamba Dam is all about insurance and development companies making money, not about people's safety. This week we'll be calling on NRMA Insurance to protect World Heritage listed Indigenous sites at their AGM.
22.01.2022 SILVERDALE RD UPDATE Here's a quick update on what's happening with Silverdale Rd. Planning work for the duplication of the bridge and widening of the road to two lanes each way between Blaxland Crossing and the top of Baines Hill is progressing well (you may have seen surveyors on the hill over the last month). Further reconstruction work on the existing road will also occur in the next few months, in particular, I've been pushing the staff to do the bad section between Warr...adale and Econo. Additional improvements such as kerb and gutter, shoulder widening, traffic calming and the much need footpath between the shops and Warradale Rd will also be progressively rolled out using some of the grant funding we've received. Council has also recently employed an additional road crew to work on potholes and do more substantial patching work, which should hopefully reduce reliance on the squirt truck over time. If you see a pothole that needs fixing it would also be very helpful if you could log it n the new council customer portal so that it can get fixed more quickly. If you have any questions on any of the above let me know and I'll answer as best I can.
21.01.2022 Delighted to catch up with the lovely ladies from The Oaks CWA branch this evening to discuss getting them their own space to operate out of as well as improvements to community facilities in The Oaks.
21.01.2022 Hopefully another nail in the coffin of this truly terrible idea.
20.01.2022 Exciting update on the Fire Truck Memorial at Telopea Park - This morning the playground structure was delivered to its final home in Buxton. Work can now comme...nce on finalising the installation. Once construction work is complete, the playground will be opened in a private capacity for the families of Geoffrey Keaton and Andrew O'Dwyer, who tragically lost their lives battling the Green Wattle Creek bushfire. We would appreciate the support of the community in keeping the playground safe until it is officially opened to the public on 5 December. See more
18.01.2022 There has been an accident involving a stolen truck and trailer at Victoria Bridge. The truck has hit the height barrier of the bridge causing it to become stru...cturally unsound. Council staff are on site to direct traffic. Due to the extent of the damage, the RMS will be on site soon to inspect and repair the damage. The road is therefore closed until further notice. We appreciate your patience and understanding.
18.01.2022 COVID-19 UPDATE NSW Health has now identified several trains that travelled through the shire as potential exposure points for Covid-19. If you were on any of the following trains you should monitor for any symptoms and get tested if you show even mild symptoms. Wednesday 6th 4:52am - 7:09am from Moss Vale to Liverpool Wednesday 6th 4:58pm - 7:12pm from Liverpool to Moss Vale... Thursday 7th 4:52am - 7:09am from Moss Vale to Liverpool Thursday 7th 4:58pm - 7:12pm from Campbelltown to Moss Vale See more
17.01.2022 Tonight I concluded my tenure as Deputy Mayor. It’s been an absolute honour and privilege to serve the Wollondilly community as Deputy and I would also like to give a heartfelt thanks to Cr Deeth for his passion and drive as Mayor to improving the shire, and it’s been a pleasure working with him. Huge congratulations to Crs Khan and Banasik who will serve as Mayor and Deputy Mayor respectively until the council elections in September next year and I look forward to working with them as a ward Councillor to continue to advocate for the shire and protect what makes our area so special.
17.01.2022 With Facebook no longer supporting news coverage in Australia, you can still keep up to date with what's happening in your area by heading to the website pages ...of our media outlets, tuning in to local TV and radio stations or picking up a hard copy of the newspaper at your newsagent. Council supports our local media services including: Wollondilly Advertiser www.wollondillyadvertiser.com.au ABC Illawarra https://www.abc.net.au/radio/illawarra/ Macarthur Chronicle https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/macarthur The District Reporter https://www.tdr.com.au C91.3 https://c913.com.au Nine Illawarra https://www.9news.com.au/illawarra WIN Illawarra https://www.wintv.com.au/ Good Morning Macarthur https://www.goodmorningmacarthur.com South West Voice http://www.SouthWestVoice.com.au/ Mulgoa Gazette https://www.districtgazette.com.au/mulgoa-valley/ 2MCR https://2mcr.org.au/ #OurVoice #OurStories #WeSupportLocalNews See more
17.01.2022 HEAVY PATCHING - BURRAGORANG RD, MT HUNTER Council will be doing much needed asphalt heavy patching work on Burragorang Rd at Mount Hunter next Thursday (weather permitting) on the westbound overtaking lanes between Monks Lane and Moores Way. Traffic Control will be in place so residents travelling through the area should expect delays. I've been pushing for works to take place here for some time and I know its something the community has been asking for so I'm really pleased to see that this is happening.
14.01.2022 Council has recently installed 40 nest boxes in local parks and reserves across the Shire to assist with wildlife recovery after last summer’s bushfires and oth...er threats. The Bulli-Woonona Men’s Shed created the nest boxes from recycled timbers and donated them to Council as a way to contribute to wildlife recovery after the bushfires. Find out more on our website. https://www.wollondilly.nsw.gov.au//nest-boxes-installed-/
13.01.2022 The Bushfire Community forum will be held at Warragamba Town Hall this evening between 6pm-8pm. Participants can attend via ZOOM or face to face. Zoom link- htt...ps://us02web.zoom.us/j/87668503764 To register please visit our website https://www.wollondilly.nsw.gov.au//bush-fire-community-f/
13.01.2022 Fox Trapping Workshop - Mount Hunter Foxes are known to negatively impact both native wildlife and livestock in Wollondilly Shire. As part of the Menangle Fox C...ampaign, Greater Sydney Local Land Services has engaged professional trapper Mark Lamb to demonstrate best practice methods for trapping of foxes on 22 September in Mount Hunter. Wollondilly landholders are invited to attend. Preference will be given to local landholders. Bookings are essential as numbers are limited. To book click https://bit.ly/2Rx6o2S. The workshop will be a COVID-safe event. This workshop is run in partnership with Barragal Landcare Group and Wollondilly Shire Council. This project has been assisted by the New South Wales Government through its Environmental Trust and is supported by Greater Sydney Local Land Services through funding from the Australian Government's National Landcare Program. See more
13.01.2022 NEW PLANNING RESTRICTIONS - WESTERN SYDNEY AIRPORT The Department of Planning has released a new planning policy that controls and restricts development in areas near the airport or its flight paths. For Wollondilly this will have significant impacts on large parts of the North of the shire. Council is meeting with the Department of Planning later in the week to discuss this planning policy and get some clarity on some of the provisions and how they may affect Wollondilly, a...s some of the provisions were not anticipated from previous discussions with the department. I'll provide a further update when we get more information but as it stands at the moment it appears that under the new planning policy: - Residential development is banned in areas covered by the ANEC 20 or above, unless the land has already been rezoned. This broadly covers an area from Taylors Rd, Silverdale to Werombi Rd, Werombi. - Any new residential or noise sensitive development in Warragamba, Silverdale, Wallacia and large parts of Werombi and Theresa Park will be required to have aircraft noise proofing to the Australian Standards. - Development will not be allowed in some areas in the North of the Shire around Silverdale due to the height of the land. - Approval from the Commonwealth Government will be required before some types of development are allowed. - There is the potential that some parts of Wollondilly will not be able to use exempt or complying development provisions. We'll hopefully have more information over the next week or so, and I'm also continuing to advocate for existing homes in areas affected by the airport to get noise proofing funded by the state or federal government. You can find the full details of the new planning policy here - https://bit.ly/3kQ7LXl
12.01.2022 Opening Hours for Warragamba Pool this season.
07.01.2022 New carpark markings looks great
05.01.2022 Council crews have been busy again this week, with safety measures in place to protect our staff and the community. - Linemarking work along Warradale Rd, Silve...rdale is now complete. - Drainage maintenance was completed at Bobs Range Rd and Silverdale Rd, Orangeville, Chandos St, Yanderra and Lake St Thirlmere. - Footpath construction along Great Southern Rd, Bargo was completed and open to the community. - Heavy patching work was completed at Oakdale Carpark. - Drainage maintenance is still in progress along Dredge Av, Douglas Park, Remembrance Drwy and Macquariedale Rd, Appin. Please continue to drive carefully to meet the changed road conditions. Thank you for helping us build a better, safer Shire.
04.01.2022 Warning to Sheep Graziers for the Mid North Coast, Hunter, Northern Tablelands, Illawarra, South Coast, Central Tablelands, Southern Tablelands, North West Slop...es & Plains, Central West Slopes & Plains, South West Slopes, Riverina, Lower Western and Snowy Mountains districts. Sheep graziers are warned that cold temperatures, showers and westerly winds are expected during Friday. Areas likely to be affected include the Illawarra, Central Tablelands, Southern Tablelands, Central West Slopes & Plains, South West Slopes, Riverina, Lower Western, Snowy Mountains and Australian Capital Territory forecast districts and parts of the Mid North Coast, Hunter, Northern Tablelands, South Coast and North West Slopes & Plains forecast districts. There is a risk of losses of lambs and sheep exposed to these conditions. For more information on this warning, visit the BoM: https://bit.ly/2HsFZBF
04.01.2022 Update 27.9.20 - Warragamba Pool Council understands the community disappointment on this issue and acknowledges your concern. We’re disappointed too. Our prio...rity is the safe and effective operation of the pool and getting it open as soon as possible. In this case, Council resolved to give the former operator an opportunity to continue to manage the pool in a way that met required safety and environmental standards, but also froze entry fees. The former operator decided not to continue under these terms, and is well within his right to do so. This post is about keeping the community informed as we move forward with our back-up plan. We’ll post an update early in the week, with the hope to open the pool from the October long weekend if possible. For more background information on the issue, go to https://www.wollondilly.nsw.gov.au/home/alerts/ Unfortunately unable to meet standards for safe and effective operation of Warragamba Pool, the former operator of the pool has today advised Council he won’t agree to Council’s offer to manage the pool for the coming year. Council staff are now developing a revised operating model for operating the pool that provides a safe play space for the community. This late advice from the former contractor does put the opening of the pool for the October long weekend in jeopardy; however, Council staff have started work immediately over this weekend to open the pool as soon as possible. On 15 September, Council resolved to enter into negotiations with the former operator of the Pool for 1 + 1 year option to operate the pool on Council’s behalf. Council and the former operator met the next day to re-start the negotiation process and Council was hopeful of achieving a speedy and positive outcome. Unfortunately, the contractor advised Council today Saturday 25 September that he is unable to meet Council’s requirements for the safe and effective operation of the pool (as resolved by Council) and is no longer interested in providing the service to the community. The opening date will be announced as soon as possible.
03.01.2022 Congratulations to Cr Banasik who today clocked up 25 years serving the Wollondilly community. He’s been there so long that when he was first elected to council I was 10.
03.01.2022 ROAD REJUVENATION WORKS - SILVERDALE I've seen a lot of questions today around some road rejuvenation works that are planned for this Thursday for parts of Green Hills Drive and its side streets. I thought it would be worthwhile to do a quick post clarifying a couple of things and answering some of the common questions that are coming up. Firstly council isn't doing any actual resurfacing works here. Basically they are just putting down a special protective paint to help seal... the road, protect against oxidation and make sure water cant get through into the road base. Spending a little bit of money on this work now ends up saving a lot of money over the life of the road that can then be redirected into other road projects. It's very much a case of an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. As a quick example doing this kind of work (which is known as "phase 1 works") costs about $8 a square metre. If you don't do it now the road would degrades a little further and this kind of cheap solution wouldn't be effective on it (which is why this isn't being done to Taylors etc). If that happens then to fix it you need to have at least heavy patching works (phase 2) which are over three times as expensive at about $30 a square metre or a full reconstruction (phase 3) which is three times more expensive again at about $90 a square metre. Happy to try and answer any other questions anyone has about this.
03.01.2022 OPERATION OF WARRAGAMBA POOL I've had heaps of inquiries over the past month or so regarding the running of Warragamba Pool. Unfortunately as this matter relates to a council contract the confidentiality provisions of Local Government Act apply which has limited (and to some extent still does) my ability to provide an update to the community on this issue. However this matter was considered at the council meeting last night, so I am now able to provide some additional informa...Continue reading
03.01.2022 WOLLONDILLY COVID CASE - UPDATE NSW Health have confirmed that the case identified in Wollondilly yesterday is a man in his fifties from the Picton/Wilton/Buxton/Mowbray Park area. A close contact of his from Wollondilly has now also tested positive for covid-19. I hope they both get better soon and have a speedy recovery. NSW Health have also released a list of known potential exposure points and whilst there aren’t currently any in the shire there are a couple in neighbour...ing areas that residents may have visited including: Kmart at Narellan Town Centre (Fri 2nd 6-7pm) Penrith Homemaker Centre (Sun 4th 11am-1pm) Guzman y Gomez Penrith (Sun 4th 1:30-2pm) Home Co Penrith (Sun 4th 2-2:30pm). A full list of locations of concern are available here: https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/latest-news-and-updates If you have been to any of these locations during the periods outlined you should monitor for any symptoms and get tested if even mild symptoms appear. It’s also still very important that the community as a whole follows the covid safety rules including maintaining social distancing, washing your hands, wearing a mask if you are unable to maintain safe social distancing and getting tested if you show any symptoms.
02.01.2022 NEW ONLINE PORTAL LAUNCHED Council has just released a new online tool to let residents report and track issues online thanks to a new customer service portal launched today. This will mean requests are actioned quicker and residents will be updated in real-time as Council acts on the request.... The tool also lets residents see other issues that have been reported such as fallen trees or potholes and follow any they are interested in. This is something that I've been involved in championing since I was elected to council and I'm delighted to see it delivered. It's just the first step in delivering better online services to residents, with online financial transactions expected to be added to the portal as the next improvement. You can access the portal via council's website or by going to https://portal.wollondilly.nsw.gov.au
01.01.2022 AN APOLOGY AND A THANK YOU This is a bit more of a personal post than I tend to write but there’s a couple of things I wanted to get off my chest. The last week hasn’t been a great one for me. Last Sunday my car got stolen from my driveway, and if that wasn’t bad enough it also had my akubra in it, which holds amazingly significant sentimental value to me. I’ve already been having a bit of a rough time with my mental health lately and this was a bit like the straw that broke... the camels back. It left me absolutely devastated, withdrawn and I’ve had to spend the past week focused on trying to find my car. Apologies to anyone that has contacted me in the last week who I haven’t got back to. I know there have been some things happening in the ward that need my attention and over the past week I haven’t met the standard I expect of myself as a councillor, and for that I’m sorry. I also have a bunch of community questions that have come in and I’ll get back to them over the next day or so. More importantly I’d like to give a genuine and heartfelt thank you to our community and to my fellow councillors. At the start of the week my faith in people in general was pretty shaken but the number of people in our community and amongst my fellow councillors who have either checked to see how I’m going or who have offered to help me in a myriad of ways has reminded me why I love the Wollondilly so much and has pulled be out of a pretty bad place. Whether it’s been driving around looking for my car, offering to let me check their security footage, the multiple offers to lend me a car until I get a new one or the literally dozens of people who have reached out to check on me or help in other ways it really has restored my faith in our community. Whilst we unfortunately have a few scumbags amongst us 99% of the people that make up Wollondilly are amazing people and whilst the last week has been hard it’s also reminded me why I love this place and am proud to call it home. Thank you all for being such a great community.
