Federation and Moira councils were joined by NSW Government Regional Roads and Transport Minister, The Hon Paul Toole MLA and Member for Albury Justin.
Wallerawang near Lithgow on the western edge of the Blue Mountains is home to a defunct power plant that may have lessons for the fleet of shutdowns yet to come.
With NSW mega councils bleeding red ink, give communities a say on breaking up mergers
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In May 2016, councils fearing forced amalgamations suspected premier Mike Baird would break a long standing Coalition promise that it would not merge NSW councils. Wednesday is the fifth anniversary of the breaking of that promise.
Together with his local government minister, Paul Toole, the then premier announced that 44 existing NSW councils would be forcibly merged into 20 mega councils. Administrators would run them and merged council employees would be job protected for three years. Country employees were especially affected. They might have to travel hundreds of kilometres daily to attend work rather than to their old workplaces sometimes minutes away.
Australia’s Longest Tunnel Road Earmarked Under Blue Mountains
The New South Wales government is looking to build Australia’s longest tunnel road under the Blue Mountains west of Sydney as part of a “history-making” infrastructure project.
If completed, the 11-kilometre tunnel would help shorten the commute between Blackheath and Mount Victoria, as the final stage of the 130 kilometres of planned Great Western Highway upgrades.
The government has already committed to a 4.5 kilometre and 4 kilometre tunnel under Blackheath and Mt Victoria, respectively, and are now looking into the feasibility of connecting the two.
“This proposal would see those tunnels joined together, creating the longest road tunnel in the country,” Deputy Premier John Barilaro said.
The longest road tunnel in Australia would be constructed between Lithgow and Katoomba within the next decade under a plan being considered by the NSW Government.