Hi again,
Allan Sicard, a local resident of the Hills Shire Council, offering a different perspective as an
Independent Councillor in The Hills for the NSW Local Government Elections in September 2024.
I suggest it is time to step away from a major party affiliated local council, and return to an Independent council that represents Local interests and local issues. An Independent council works collaboratively with all stakeholders to achieve the best outcome for our community, now and into the future. An Independent Council represents the opportunity to create an inclusive and supportive community where nobody gets left behind.
At the end of this election blog post I have attached the last 3 Mayoral Minutes for the the 2023 Hills Shire Council year, relating to housing in response to the Federal and State Governments Housing Strategies.
In essence these Mayoral Minutes, supported by the majority of councillors(not all), say that the Hills Shire Council is a leading council in supplying housing across NSW and they do not intend to change their planning strategies to accomodate any social and affordable housing initiatives. The Hills Shire Community does not want that type of housing. The general thrust of the Federal and State Housing Policies are to make housing affordable. No where in any of the Mayoral Minutes is the word “Affordable” ever addressed.
Our community has approximately 199,000 people.
- 50,000 (or 52.4% of the working population) work in health & social assistance(13.2%), professional, scientific and technical services (11.6%). education (9.3%), retail (9.2%), and construction (9.1%),
- 38999 of household in The Hills Shire earn less than $208K/year or $4K/week which represents 64.9% of all households.
- In regards to rental payments in The Hills 28% of households pay $550-$649/week in, and 17% pay $650-$749/week.
- In regards to Home Loans in The Hills 22% of households pay between $3K-$4K/Monthly Loan repayments, with 13% between $4K-$5K, and 12% over $5K per month.
- 57% of the The Hills Shire Workforce lives outside of the Hills Shire.
I would respectfully ask our community – Do you want our local council to work with the State Government and other agencies to create more affordable housing strategies in The Hills?
Should we be working in a more collaborative way to create more social and affordable housing so that our children and our future generations can afford to live in our wonderful Hills community.
Our Police Officers, Ambulance Officers, Health Care workers, Teachers, Aged Care Workers. Construction Workers should be allowed to afford to live in The Hills Shire in affordable housing that allows them to live where they work.
That is a respectful, inclusive, supportive and kind strategy to have our local council working towards and a strategy above all, that ensures no one gets left behind.
Do you currently have adult children living in your homes in The Hills because they cannot afford to rent of buy housing in The Hills? The phenomenon is growing.
As someone who has worked in the Homelessness Sector for over 8 years, whilst a Senior Ranking Police Officer, I am only too aware of how easy it is to end up without a place to live due to a couple of unforeseen events.
Now in 2023, post Covid epidemics and a global challenge in the affordability of housing, we are facing the worst housing crisis we have ever seen.
We need to be working collaboratively with each other.
When people work genuinely work together in an inclusive and supportive society amazing things do happen. When we work against each other, everyone misses out.
Isn’t this the future we should be working towards?
I have attached an article of what supporting Affordable Housing for Essential Workers can look like. Other councils across Sydney support the concept but it does not really exist in the Hills at the level that it could and should occur.
A vote for Allan Sicard in the NSW Local Government Elections in 2024 will see me advocate for a more inclusive and supportive approach to ensuring our children and future generations can have an affordable home in The Hills Shire Council.
The NSW Government have created two new positions in government that have never existed before in furtherance to its strategies to create affordable homes for the people of NSW. These include Trina Jones as the 1st Rental Commissioner for NSW, and Rebecca Pinkstone as the 1st CEO for Homes NSW. We should be working with these initiatives not against them.
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Check out the other Election Blogs
Election Blog 2
Election Blog 1