Minutes of the LRTC Meeting 6th February 2016 at Cowra
LACHLAN REGIONAL TRANSPORT COMMITTEE
Minutes of the Ordinary Meeting held in Cowra at the RSL Club on Saturday February 6th 2016.
The Mayor of Cowra Bill West welcomed everyone to the meeting which opened at 10:05am and made general comment regarding the issues in Cowra and the district.
ATTENDANCE: There were twenty three members in attendance APOLOGIES: As per the attendance book with thirteen apologies. MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING:
The minutes of the meeting held on November 7th 2015 be accepted as read and apologies for the meeting also be accepted.. Moved R Morris seconded E Wilkinson. CARRIED.
SECRETARY’S REPORT AND CORRESPONDANCE:
The correspondence was circulated to the meeting for perusal by members.
TREAUSERS REPORT:
The Treasurer Dennis Hughes presented the report for the previous meeting and detailed the receipts and expenditure and it was tabled for the information of members.
The balance of the account is $7,650 andit was moved D Hughes seconded M Duffey that the Secretary’s Report and Treasurers Report be accepted. CARRIED.
The Treasurer also commented that their were a number of Councils and individuals who haven’t re-joined or paid membership.
REPORTS:
Cowra - B West
Commented on the Blayney Demondrille line and is hopeful there may be some sort of resolution in the medium term and is pursuing this further and mentioned tourism with Lachlan Valley Rail.
Young - Brian Ingram
Brian said that at the moment his Council was concentrating on the proposed amalgamations of councils in NSW and hoped we could move forward with opening of rail links.
Harden - John Horton
John spoke on the $2 million grain terminal at Cunningar which would be a 24/7 service and also said this would assist with the Blayney Demondrille line.
Parkes - Ken McGrath
Ken commented on the intermodal task force meeting coming up on February 9th and also about the Parkes by-pass.
Wollondilly - Judith Hannan
Judith spoke on the second airport proposal and they are now involved as a stakeholder. Spoke on the EPA Report and various submissions and did say at meeting roads on maps for proposed airports only covered federal and not state roads.
Commented on the Maldon/Dombarton line and negotiations and EOI still progressing
NSW Ports – Dom Figliomeni
Dom commented on the Quattro project which is about 90% complete and the first train was recently received.
There will be a Transport NSW forum in Tumut on March 7th to discuss freight logistics
Contract in place to operate facilities for containers at Enfield.
Port Kembla has recently brought fuel distribution centre in Orange.
Said that neither agreed with summation for Maldon Dombarton line and there is still a number of hurdles.
There was general discussion from the floor and it was moved John Horton seconded Barry Holland that the Chairperson and all Mayors from representative Councils meet with the NSW Premier Mike Baird regarding the opening of both lines Maldon/ Dombarton and Blayney Demondrille lines and to get a resolution as to which way the state government is looking and get a definite answer or commitment. CARRIED.
All interested parties need to get together to formulate a plan of attack so they are on the same page when they meet. Ideally before the budget would be an opportune time.
Judith Hannan to contact each Council to advise and get a suitable date to meet Mike Baird.
Pascal Stendall
Commented on the progress of the of the web page and said it could be utilised further and have more reach if links were available to let the community know what the purpose of the LRTC and its projects are.
We will look at establishing links to the web page and representatives from each Council will follow up with their people to see if they agree so this can go ahead.
If any member had projects they thought were useful with photographs they should be included.
Warwick Erwin will include the Maldon/Dombarton line as a project. This was moved W Erwin seconded E Wilkinson. CARRIED. Lachlan Valley Rail - Ray Morris
Commented on the tourist aspect of the organisation and said that that the Cowra/Woodstock line was in good order and spoke about the difficulties in running such an organisation
Comment was made about the Sydney/Kiama line and the general positive support it was receiving.
It was moved J Hannan seconded E Wilkinson that all reports be accepted.
CARRIED.
GENERAL BUSINESS:
Judith Hannan -
Commented on the upcoming federal election and said it was appropriate to send Angus Taylor the Federal Member for Hume a letter of thanks for his continued support of the LRTC
Spoke about Council amalgamations and there was general comment. John Horton spoke on his Councils scenario and proposed amalgamations with neighbouring Councils.
Judith also commented on the difficulty of setting timetables for rail movements and the number of organisations involved to get a train from A to B.
It is recommended that a specific entity be established to monitor such movements and this would require support from stakeholders and industry and well as government input.
LVR are happy to be involved as from a committee perspective they know first-hand of the difficulties involved.
Ian Gray will look into the cost of track use and report back.
Comment was made about establishing a face book page for LRTC and posting some projects etc. on that social media page.
Judith Hannan and Bill West left the meeting at 11.35am Dennis Hughes took the Chair.
Max Duffey -
Max mentioned to demolition of rail infrastructure at Newcastle.
Commented on a ceremony Tim Fischer was unveiling a plaque in Boorowa on April 9th 2016 to commemorate the 100 years of rail.
Dennis Hughes asked if there were any interests for the next meeting to be held on May 14th. It was determined that we ask if Wollongong City Council be interested in conducting the meeting. This was moved S Freudenstein seconded J Faulks.
CARRIED.
The meeting closed at 11:45am