The first meeting of 2021.
Last night's council made decisions about a number of key areas.
Climate Change Strategic Policy
A new draft policy to guide the development of Orange City Council strategies to deal with climate change has been placed on exhibition for community comment.
The new draft document makes suggestions for the future of use of renewable energies such as solar power as well as transport, water and trees.
New entity for three-council alliance
Last night's meeting backed plans to set up a new entity to work on behalf of the new alliance of Blayney, Cabonne and Orange Councils.
The three councils signed an alliance to work on joint projects together.
The new entity will be called BCO Alliance Ltd and will need the consent of the Local Government Minister. It would act as an agent for the alliance councils.
Residents getting better at waste
Orange residents are putting less recyclable materials and food and garden waste in their red bin than they were a year earlier, according to a report to last night's council meeting.
The results of the 2020 bin audits were presented in a report to the meeting.
The meeting heard the amount of recyclables in average red bins in Orange fell from 19.64% (2019) to 17.82% (2020).
The amount of food and garden waste being put in red bins fell from 32.14% (2019) to 21.29% (2020).
The majority of red bins in Orange are less than 60% full, according to the bin-audit report. The report suggested that some areas of Orange would have little trouble switching to a fortnightly waste collection. However for the third of bins in Orange are full most weeks, a fortnightly collection could prove more difficult, the report found.
The proportion of Orange households putting their green-lidded bin out for collection is increasing, but almost half households are not using them.
The proportion of green bins put out for collection rose from 38% in 2019 to 53% in 2121.
The report floats the suggestion of a number of options to meet the needs of households which generate high volumes of waste. These include the option of selecting a different bin configuration, such as:
- two general waste bins collected fortnightly,
- one general waste bin collected weekly,
- or a larger general waste bin
There are no plans to change the current service at this time.
Esso Park up for debate
Plans for Esso Park, opposite Orange High School were considered by last night's meeting.
A number of options for the park have been floated including constructing links to council-owned vacant land on the corner of Summer and Woodward Streets.
Last night's meeting decided to keep the park as it is a move forward with the sale of 1 Summer Street
Plans for western end of DPI site up for comment
Last night's meeting heard the latest update on plans for a medium density housing development on the vacant council-owned land on the western end of the former base hospital site.
Council is floating proposals for three and four-storey apartments as well as large areas of open space.
In order to encourage a developer to take on a project in line with Council plans, a draft Development Control Plan (DCP) for the site has been developed. The DCP will now be on display for community comment for 28 days.
Valuing trees
Last night's meeting rejected a motion calling for an investigation of options for putting a dollar value on trees to be removed or kept as part of Development Applications.
The motion called for council to be able to consider a tree's carbon absorption, visual amenity and contribution to urban heat reduction and the impact of water quality.
Last night's meeting rejected a motion from Cr Nugent to look at options to promote the Botanic Gardens and Adventure Playground as a rest stop for travellers using the bypass.
In Brief:
- The meeting gave its permission for a private business promotional event (Support Small Business with Afterpay) in Robertson Park on 13 & 14 February.
- Last night's meeting approved a 33-lot residential subdivision off Touralosa Way in Glenroi.
Orange City Council, photo taken in 2017. (Back) Councillors Sam Romano, Glenn Taylor, Jeff Whitton, Russell Turner, Jason Hamling, Scott Munro, Stephen Nugent, (front) Kevin Duffy, Tony Mileto, Mayor Reg Kidd, Joanne McRae, Mario Previtera (deceased).
