Scores on Doors

One of our primary tasks as a Council is to protect our residents when they buy and consume food from the many local outlets.  We aim to ensure that our residents have confidence that when they buy food from local outlets it’s safe to consume.  To improve food safety we’re going to participate in a trial with theNSW Food Authority called “Scores on Doors”. The scheme is aimed at food service businesses that process and sell food that is ready-to-eat, intended for immediate consumption and which needs to be handled in the safest possible manner. And the businesses to be involved within our City include: restaurants, take-aways, hotels, clubs, cafes and bakeries. 

The scheme requires participating businesses to display a certificate with a star rating – between three and five.  Three stars mean a ‘good level’ of food safety compliance and five indicates an ‘excellent level’. The certificates are emblazoned with “Good” for three stars, “Very Good” for four and “Excellent” for five. The scores are assigned after an unannounced routine inspection by Council’s Environmental Health Officers.  With the rating determined Council issues a certificate which can be placed in a highly visible location where customers can see it with a glance. Such a scheme gives greater confidence for everyone to buy and eat food from the outlets and gives food businesses an incentive to improve.

Honouring an aviation pioneer

Council has decided that a new park down in Mascot will be named after the Australian aviation pioneer Nancy Bird-Walton.  I reckon it’s appropriate that we honour Nancy Bird-Walton, especially as the new park is so close to Sydney Airport, where she was taught to fly in 1933 by the man whose name is the name of the actual airport itself – Charles Kingsford Smith.  I’ve still got a signed photograph on my wall of Nancy Bird-Walton, which she gave me when we met in 2004. 

The park in the Mascot Station Precinct is on the corner of Coward and Bourke streets, in an area that is being revitalised.  We’ve worked with the Botany Historical Trust in coming to the decision.  So we will have the Nancy Bird-Walton Reserve, honouring a great aviation pioneer.  Her name is emblazoned on the nose of the first Qantas A380 jet, which will, from time to time, fly over the Nancy Bird-Walton Reserve in Mascot.

Tiger at the Lakes this weekend

Residents in the Mascot/Eastlakes area are reminded that the Men’s Australian Open Golf Championships is on at the Lakes Golf Club this weekend.  With Tiger Woods playing there will be an influx of visitors to our city bringing increased traffic all looking for parking.  Whilst patience is appreciated if residents have any traffic concerns they can contact Craig Tindale, Operations Manager on 97009300 or Momtchil Vassilev, TrafficPlanner on 0416120848 or the Traffic Management Centre on 132701.

Making Safer Young Drivers

Our special workshop to help those supervising young learner drivers to be better and safer drivers is  filling fast – but we can still take a few more. We run the workshop in conjunction with the Roads and Traffic Authority. Disturbing statistics show young drivers between 17 and 20 are three times more likely to be involved in serious accidents.   We don’t want these trends to continue and that’s why we work with the RTA to try and overcome the high accident rate. 

The workshop focuses on helping parents and those who supervise learner drivers with safe driving messages and tipsthat they can use when teaching young people to drive.  The workshop is free and it will be held in the Central Library at Eastgardens on Thursday, November 24 between 5.45 - 7.45pm. You will need to book, which you can do by calling Yasemin or Patrick on 9366 3889.

A Call to Local Young Artists

I’m issuing a special call to all our residents aged 6 to 12 years for little help in illustrating the 2011 edition of our Report to the Community. We’ve done this twice in the past – in 1997 and again in 2003 – and each time we haven’t been able to meet the demand for copies. Parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles got copies of the two children’s editions. 

I still think my favourite comment from our local kids came from a Year 2 pupil in the 1997 edition who, above clouds, a big heart and a rainbow, said she liked living in our City “because it’s my kind of City.” Parks and playgrounds, our local environment, roads and streets, public buildings, kids at play, schools and right down to fishing, our local kids depicted our City in a simple and extremely effective way – also with great splashes of colour. The theme for the 2011 edition of the annual report will be “Our City through the eyes of Our Children.”   

The artwork can depict both the good and the bad!  Aspiring artists and authors might love our zoo in the Sir JosephBanks Park, but hate the big trucks that thunder along Botany Road. There is no part of our City, its day-to-day life, its environment and its place that will be exempt from this juvenile interpretation. 

All contributions should be sent to the Mayor’s Office, P.O. Box 331 Mascot, or dropped into my office at Eastgardens next to the Central Library.  Entries close on Friday, December 3. There’s no limit on the number of entries and following the completion of the report, which is distributed to all households during the first week of February, each child who submits an item for consideration will be invited to attend a special “Thank You” function I host and where each child will receive a special certificate.

Mascot Shopping Strip Upgrade

We’re now into Stage 2 of our upgrade of the footpaths along Botany Road in the Mascot shopping strip.  An example of the new paving that’s going in can be seen at the corner of Hollingshed Street and Botany Road.  We want to thank everyone for their patience with the footpath upgrades as we’ve tried to keep disruption to a minimum.  The end result will be a much improved stretch of Botany Road, similar to what we’ve done down in Botany.

Local Government Conference

Work and civic duties precluded me from attending the recent Local Government Conference (except for the weekend) where there were some important issues effecting residents, ratepayers and local government in general were discussed.  However, a lot of other topics, which I consider irrelevant to local government, were also on the agenda.  In our Council’s view collecting the garbage, keeping the streets clean and attractive, improving parks and playgrounds, protecting local environment and ensuring proper planning policies are far more important than uninformed opinions on international affairs, social engineering and interference in state and national issues and policies. While we are all entitled to express our individual views on any number of issues, local government should look after local people and issues. We are “local” if nothing.