The State Government's Light Rail project is on track to start later this year, with construction expected to take up to five years. As a Council, we are ready and focused on doing everything we can to support the project and its rollout into our city.  Getting light rail to our City is a nine out of 10. Now, we want to make it a 10 out of 10.

Last week Council endorsed a light rail support plan which proposes allocating $68 million in future draft budgets over five years, subject to detailed community consultation.  We've got plans to build a multi-storey car park in Kingsford, and to create new on-street parking spaces near Anzac Parade.  We're also proposing to upgrade drainage, create new urban plazas and develop better cycleway connections.  Everyone will get to have their say on these over the next few years.

As part of our commitment to support light rail, I also want to assure residents that we're working through the details to come up with a financial proposal to pay for these works.  There will be no levies or extra rate increases (apart from the usual yearly adjustment).   A large portion of the funding will come from "section 94 contributions", i.e. money already in our bank account which over time has been paid to Council to carry out upgrades and improvements to public infrastructure.  The rest of the funding will be allocated in Council's budgets over a five year period.

I encourage everyone to get their information from either our website Light Rail to Randwick or www.sydneylightrail.transport.nsw.gov.au. We're working to make light rail a complete success.

Lastly, I would like to acknowledge and thank everyone who attended the official opening of the Fallen Lifesavers Memorial last Sunday. It was a great event and was well attended, despite the weather. The memorial is a wonderful addition to Coogee.

Councillor Scott Nash
Mayor of Randwick @randwickmayor