Reflecting on the promises we’ve delivered

It has been a busy few months at Wollongong City Council with some exciting key milestones and achievements making the highlights reel for the July to September Quarterly Review.

Between July to September, as part of the 33 services Council delivers, we not only opened our beaches and pools for the summer swim season and offered a great range of programs in our libraries, we also worked with Transport for NSW and Neuron to launch the 12-month Wollongong E-scooter trial, delivered the Illawarra Refugee Challenge, an important learning experience for local high-school students and set up a family-friendly live site in Globe Lane for fans to support the Matildas in their FIFA Women’s World Cup campaign.

Image: The Wollongong e-scooter trial started on the 29 September 2023 and will run for 12 months.

These are just some of the projects captured in the Quarterly Review Statement for the first quarter of 2023/2024 financial year. It was one of two documents endorsed by Council at its meeting on Monday 27 November with the second being the Annual Report 2022-2023. This document sets out how Council performed against the goals and actions listed in the Delivery Program 2022-2026 and Operational Plan 2022-2023.

Wollongong City Lord Mayor Councillor Gordon Bradbery AM said he was pleased to share an update with the community on the broad spectrum of work that Council does to deliver quality services and manage assets for the community, all while facing significant external challenges.

“To say the past year has been challenging feels like an understatement. Just like our community, Council projects and services have been impacted by volatile weather events, high inflation and supply costs. This has made it exceptionally challenging for us to tackle all the work our community expects us to do,” Cr Bradbery said.

“It can be easy to get lost in the doing and it’s important to reflect on what we’ve achieved and make sure we’re working towards the six Community Goals from the Our Wollongong 2032 Community Strategic Plan. At the same time, when you’re looking at documents like the Quarterly Review and Annual Report it’s important to remember that these are just a snapshot of the vast amount of work Council does every day.

“The work we do at Council touches so many facets of our community members’ lives. That’s everything from maintaining parks and gardens, having Lifeguards patrolling at our beaches, cleaning and caring for our nine sea pools, running extraordinary, free community events, supporting local businesses through Council policies, ensuring the best and latest books are available on local library shelves, providing community transport services for those who need it and improving safety around schools by working with the community.”

Download and read a copy of the Annual Report 2022-2023 and the Quarterly Review for the first quarter of the 2023/2024 financial year.

While we do so much each year, here are a couple of highlights covered in the 2022-2023 Annual Report:

• the delivery of stage 1 of the Fred Finch Park Berkeley netball courts
• adopting the Wollongong Housing Strategy 2023
• planting over 20,000 trees, shrubs and groundcovers as part of our Urban Greening program
• and, of course, hosting the 2022 UCI Road World Championships, the largest cycling event to be held in NSW since the 2000 Olympics.

Video: The Koala Food Forest Project is just one of our many Urban Greening projects that help increase the number of trees in our community.

Wollongong City Council General Manager Greg Doyle said that he was proud of the work Council staff were doing to make Wollongong an extraordinary place to live, work and play.

“It’s been an incredible year of delivering exceptional service to the community. The team at Wollongong City Council are part of our diverse and welcoming community and we take great pride in delivering a strong program of projects. At the same time, we’re staying on the ball with caring for our portfolio of existing infrastructure such as roads, facilities, and pools. And all this needs to be achieved in a tricky market where we seek to get the best value for money for our ratepayers in the face of the rising cost of materials,” Mr Doyle said.

“The past few years have seen a strong focus on cycling. While we’re working to improve transport options for people who drive, walk, ride or use public transport, we have a special commitment to ensuring that people of all ages and abilities can safely ride a bike. This aligns not only with Council’s Cycling Strategy 2023, but also our Climate Change adaptation and mitigation measures.”

Image: The 2022 UCI Road World Championships saw 240,000 spectators line our city streets to watch and 8,193 hours of Wollongong images broadcast globally to 166 countries. 

In 2021, the City of Wollongong was awarded the prestigious title of UCI Bike City. This internationally recognised award acknowledges Council’s commitment to active transport, especially cycling and the work Council is doing to make Wollongong a bike-friendly city.

“The 2022 UCI Road Championships was a crowning moment, and we’ve kept that momentum going by investing in a number of cycling projects,” Mr Doyle said.

“That included projects such as the opening of the Illawarra Criterium Track in Unanderra and the new bike skills playground at the Cringila Hills Mountain Bike Park. It also includes the pop-up cycling routes project, as well as our ongoing work to build a shared pathway along the Grand Pacific Walk.”