Lord Mayor's Column: Thriving Dapto a hive of activity

Last week I had the pleasure of putting on the high-vis and heading out to Dapto to check on the progress we’re making on several major projects in the area.

We know that West Dapto is of major strategic importance to our region’s housing future, but it’s part of a broader approach to Dapto and the surrounding suburbs. It’s a rapidly growing community, and it’s important that we’re providing new and improved infrastructure, while maintaining the services our residents rely on.

It was really pleasing to head out to Fowlers Road to see our City Works team carry out the line-marking and other finishing touches to the Cleveland Road Stage 1 upgrades.

This connecting road infrastructure will help unlock these growing suburbs. It certainly looked terrific, with widening from two lanes to four, construction of a new shared path and street lighting, and new stormwater drainage.

I know locals are eagerly awaiting news on the West Dapto Road upgrade project and I had a walk through the site and was pleased to see that they are making good progress.

While much of the early work on the project has gone on beneath the surface in preparation for road widening, it’s clearly taking shape and we remain on track to re-open to vehicle traffic in July, weather permitting.

I’m confident it will be well worth the wait and provide much needed connectivity for these communities. I greatly appreciate the patience of our community as we undertake this essential upgrade.

Housing supply is a high-priority issue for our community, and the nation, but we need to ensure new housing is linked to town centres and to other major highways, which is what these projects allow us to do.

And of course, everything is better with coffee, so it was great to visit a local cafe with some of the council infrastructure works crew and thank them for their efforts.  I acknowledge it is a difficult time for local businesses, and I encourage everyone to support local businesses via the alternative routes available through the temporary road closure if you can.

It was a warm day, so it was a relief to get the PPE off and head to Dapto Pool and see local school kids enjoying their swimming carnival. The heated pool is a great facility, and much-loved by the local community.

Whilst I didn’t get my swimmers on, it was great to see students enjoying the day at their carnival, which highlighted how important our pools are to our communities.

One of the hottest topics community members raise with me is how we best cater for the varying needs of our residents when it comes to things like leisure centres, supervised pools, and indoor sports facilities.  We know we have an active community who love to get out and enjoy where we live.

We’re undertaking a lot of work right now, including major projects like the refurbishment of Helensburgh Pool, which is nearing completion and will serve its community for the next 30 years or more.

It is among the nine much loved ocean rock pools, eight supervised community pools and two leisure centres that Council manages - far more than many other local government areas.

Managing these facilities, like Dapto heated pool, requires a great deal of resources and planning. It’s why we are undertaking a review of our Aquatic and Indoor Sports Strategy, which will guide our approach over the next 20 years.

An online survey regarding this strategy is live until 16 February, and I urge everyone to get across to Council's website and fill out the survey to help us make sure we are delivering the services that will set our city up for the future.