Q: WHAT made you decide to run for council back in 2009 when you were first elected?
“Back in 2009 I had a fairly strong background in volunteering I was involved in bush care and cancer council. There was a by-election and the time of the by-election council was looking to build the concourse and I figured I could watch from the sidelines or get involved.”
Q: You’ve been on council for 12 years now and Mayor since 2014, what achievements are you most proud of from your time on council?
“We’ve adopted a green city plan with a focus on climate and sustainability and we’ve recently joined the city’s race to zero. Our operations will net zero emissions by 2025 with a 100% renewable target by 2022.”
Mayor Giles-Gidney see’s this as really providing the blueprint of how the city will grow into the future. “We’re also well advanced with planning for the Willoughby and Gorehill stage 2.
I am also very proud of the way we’ve responded to the challenge of Covid and managed to balance the budget despite 14 million losses of revenue.”
“The Council has provided free business and community support packages, rent relief on council properties and in addition, we also provided relief to the community in respect to sporting groups. The Council has adopted a very light approach to fines (during Covid), reached out to the vulnerable, with meals on wheels and linen service and the delivery of books to elder care. We made individual phone calls to people we knew were isolated.”
Q: How would you describe your vision for Chatswood and Willoughby? What steps have you taken towards achieving these goals?
“We are an incredibly inclusive city, part of my vision was to create a business and cultural hub for the north shore. The concourse provides the heart and soul to our cultural activities, its not only home to shows and performances but its also home to community events, its used by schools and we have a subsidy program to make it more accessible.”
We’re very focused on the kinds of events we give our community, we have harmony day and a number of cultural festivals that you’d see in the city.
All of these are very diverse in their offerings and we try to engage as many people as we can with our events program. It’s not just events, its our galleries, our walking trails, our theatres. We’re an incredibly safe city which makes all these venues and events family friendly.”
Q: What have been your biggest challenges as Mayor and as a councillor?
“I’ve loved every challenge, we have a remarkable community, and that remarkable community has come to the fore during Covid and has come together.
During my time as mayor we’ve had some difficult issues like amalgamations, pressure to increase density through density targets and changes to infrastructure contributions affecting councils revenue. When spending ratepayers money we’re always very careful that we’re spending in a responsible way.”
Q: How do you feel about your fellow councillors, have you felt that you can work well together to serve the community?
“We’ve been incredibly fortunate to have a great group of councillors who on the whole have worked professionally and constructively together, obviously there’s a range of different views but that has meant we are able to come together and work well for the community.
The council has been professional enough to listen and take on the views of others, that’s been part of the key to success is the diversity.”
Just prior to print, Mayor Giles-Gidney announced she will withdraw from the upcoming Council elections to stand for Liberal Party preselection in the forthcoming State by-election for Willoughby.