Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes has been left defending council spending after a dispute in last night’s council meeting.
The cutting of community projects funding has been criticised by Independents Adrea Ruffo, John Church and Kath Elliott as well as Liberal Brad Luke.
Councillor Kath Elliot said communities are missing out on infrastructure that was promised to them in this year's budget and are now being left "high and dry.”
"Labor has moved money away from community facilities and services," she said.
Upgrades to Harker Oval are one of the projects to lose funding.
"Harker Oval, used by a thousand people every week playing football and touch football badly needs its changerooms upgraded for men and women. There is no privacy and they are in a terrible state of disrepair," Kath Elliott said.
There were also calls for clarification over Newcastle's status as either a metropolitan or regional area.
The different classifications have a significant impact on the city's ability to access funding from the state and federal government.
Kath Elliot said the reclassification of Newcastle as a regional city is more beneficial when accessing funding.
"At the moment because we sometimes classify regional and sometimes metropolitan it can preclude us from being able to access. For example, the $4 billion dollar Snowy Hydro money that's the state government has provided the federal government [will be given to regional areas],” she said.
In contrast, the Lord Mayor expressed her preference for Newcastle to be classified as metropolitan, in a bid to recognise our status as the state’s second largest city.
Kath Elliot said communities are disappointed to be told council money has been taken from key facility upgrades due to the changes in the budget.
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