Newcastle remains king in housing approvals

BY JARROD MELMETH

The Housing Industry Association says the Hunter is still riding the housing approval wave with 4,476 dwellings approved in the region over the past year.

According to the latest HIA Scorecard report, Newcastle leads the Hunter in the number of approvals with 1,419 followed by Lake Macquarie with 1,149 and Maitland 907.

Meanwhile, Singleton experienced the largest increase in new dwelling approvals up 173 percent followed by Dungog up 79 percent and Gloucester 58 percent.

HIA Hunter Executive Director Craig Jennion says he expects the Hunter to continue to ride the wave well into 2018.

"The really good news is that we are starting to see some of the middle ring councils in the Hunter - by that I mean Singleton, Dungog and Gloucester - in that particular order they have had the largest increase in the last 12 months, off very low base.

"That is starting to show that confidence in what is a mining area, which has been on a downward spiral for a number of years is starting to pick up.

"We are continuing to build on the peak that we have seen for the past few years. It is a bit unexpected for the Hunter, we did start to expect to come off the boil a little bit, but at the moment our numbers are - both in detached dwellings and in unit approvals - elevated over recent highs in the past five or six years," Mr Jennion said.

HIA Hunter Executive Director Craig Jennion.

Atrium apartments under construction in Hamilton.
 Image: Jarrod Melmeth

Police Launch Operation Boote Ahead of Supercars 500

BY SARAH BARONOWSKI AND MADELAINE MCNEILL

A high-visibility police operation was launched today as Newcastle prepares for this week’s inaugural Supercars event.

Operation Boote will see officers from Newcastle Local Area Command and across the Northern Region joined by specialist officers to ensure the safety of all those in town for the event.

Officers will be out in force, targeting speeding, drink-driving, mobile phone and seat-belt offences as well as 'hoon behaviour.'

Assistant Commissioner Max Mitchells says police will be on the lookout for any misdemeanours.

"We need this event to be safe and secure and we will have ample police out there to ensure everyone's safety is paramount."

Traffic congestion is another major concern, with more than 150,000 spectators expected to be in attendance. 

“If you have the opportunity, take public transport and come to the event. Do not expect to be able to drive your car close to this event and find a park, it’s just not going to happen," said Mr. Mitchells.
  

V8 Supercars Chief Operating Officer Shane Howard says Supercars is great family entertainment and is asking for people to behave appropriately and be respectful of each other. 

Right: Assistant Commissioner Max Mitchells, Newcastle Lord Mayor
Nuatali Nelmes and Supercars Chief Operating Officier Shane Howard

“Don’t drink and drive. Just come along, enjoy a fabulous weekend with the championship going down to the wire, and go home safely.”

Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes believes it is a fantastic time for Newcastle to be showcasing the region to an international audience but says safety is paramount.

“We are encouraging people to play by the rules and make sure that they are following the guidelines set out by the police, Newcastle City Council, and Supercars.”

Assistant Commissioner Mitchell warns anyone who fails to follow the rules will be dealt with accordingly, which could mean paying a high fine or being taken into custody.

“The bottom line is you will be banned from the event,” he said. “We don’t want to see that occurring, so the message is very clear: we want everyone to come to this operation, enjoy the supercars event, and I think over this weekend it’ll be a terrific advertisement for Newcastle as a whole.”

Major Change-Up to Regional and Hunter Policing

BY SARAH BARONOWSKI

NSW Police have today announced a new policing model for regional NSW which involves re-engineering some of our local area commands, including the Hunter and Port Stephens.

34 local area commands (LAC's) will now be replaced by 26 police districts across the state and each will operate under an "Officer in Charge" model.

According to Deputy Commissioner Regional Field Operations Gary Worboys, this will be a great improvement to regional policing.

"This model allows for a more dynamic and flexible approach to investigations, proactive operations and focusing on important community issue like domestic and family violence and mid-level drug supply."

Under the change-up, the Hunter Valley LAC will combine with the southern sectors of the Central Hunter while Port Stephens is set to combine with northern sectors of the Central Hunter. 

Cessnock Mayor, Bob Pynsent says he's not happy for his electorate to be part of this change.

"I'm not comfortable with the Cessnock Local Government area being part of the Hunter Valley Command mainly because if it's based in Muswellbrook, Cessnock has the greatest population of all the other towns and it should be based in Cessnock."

He says he doesn't think this change will be of any benefit to his community and says it's all about money.

"I think it's a cost-saving measure. At no point in the consultation that I've been apart of have there been any increase in numbers put to me. Policing out of Muswellbrook and not specifically in Cessnock is not something that this community wants. "

State Government Throwing Millions of Dollars into Stopping Food Waste

BY JESSICA ROUSE

Australians waste 400,000,000 tonnes of food each year, but now organisations in the Hunter can apply for grants to bring that figure down.

In a bid to cut down on the 345 kilograms of food Aussies throw out per household, the NSW Government is throwing millions of dollars worth of grants the Hunter's way to bring the waste down.

Councils and food relief agencies in the Hunter can apply for a share in $2 million in grants to help rescue surplus food before it gets sent to landfill.

Image www.foodwise.com.au

"Landfill is filling up prematurely which is obviously a problem for us as well, but if you can make better use of that surplus food, instead of just throwing it away help people who are in a difficult situation to meet those family budgets and meet the needs," said Parliamentary Secretary for the Hunter Scot MacDonald.

Grants of up to $200,000 are available over two years to support local projects that raise awareness and improve education on food rescue.

The OzHarvest is a local organisation across Australia who collects quality excess food from commercial outlets and delivers it directly to more than 1000 charities supporting people in need across the country.

"Supermarkets do a really great job, instead of throwing it away they call these organisations that distribute it amongst the community that really needs it and importantly though they do need a lot of infrastructure I've noticed when you do visit the depots,"

They've got a lot of freezers, a lot of fridges, shelving all of those sorts of things and that's primarily what these grants are aimed at," said Scot MacDonald.