GOVERNMENT DELIVERY IN CESSNOCK ELECTORATE HEATS UP!
While the weather is certainly cooling down, it has been a hot couple of months across the Cessnock Electorate in so many other ways.
A handful of weeks ago, we welcomed 6 new Police Officers into our Hunter Valley Police District – Hunter Valley Police District stretches from Kurri Kurri up to Murrurundi and includes Branxton, Greta, Wollombi and Putty. Now 6 new officers might not seem like a lot, but across the past 18 months, by my count, we have welcomed more than 20 new officers into our District and we have another 5 new officers coming in the months ahead.
While on Police, after the brilliant new Cessnock Police Station was built, works are now getting underway on the redevelopment of the Singleton Police Station. Given that Singleton and Cessnock are both in the Hunter Valley Police District area, this is great news for our local cops. In addition to this good news, one of the temporary Police Stations that will see an increase in activity over the next 12-18 months will be Branxton Police Station – while the works are underway at Singleton.
Design works are also progressing on the new Huntlee School which will eventually have classes from pre-school through to Year 12, all at the one location. In addition to this, design works are also underway for our 6 new pre-schools that will be built into existing primary schools across the Cessnock Electorate. The plan is for the 6 new pre-schools to take their first students on Day 1, Term 1 of 2027. And the plan for our new Huntlee school is to have a pre-school to Year 8 cohort start on Day 1, Term 1 of 2028.
A site has been secured for the new Ambulance Station at Branxton – it will be built in the area that most of us call Huntlee. Designs and construction timelines are still being worked on, but with most buildings of this style now going up as pre-fabricated concrete slabs, it should be up and operational before we know it. While this is good news for that end of the Cessnock Electorate, in more frustrating news a site for a new Ambulance Station at Edgeworth, at the other end of the Cessnock Electorate, has not yet been found. Rest assured the new Edgeworth Ambulance Station will come, but the “where” is currently unknown.
In more great news, the Minister for Health was welcomed onsite in recent weeks at Cessnock Hospital to turn the sod on the construction of the new hospital there. The new build will occur at the back of the existing Cessnock Hospital, still within hospital grounds, and has an ambitious timeline of opening in the second half of 2027. While many eyes were on the Cessnock Hospital project, it has also been really exciting to watch a new roof go onto the Kurri Kurri Hospital, which required some other associated works to occur. Kurri Kurri Hospital plays an incredibly important role in the work across the Hunter New England Local Health District and is famous for the quality of work in its Day Surgery.
And speaking of old buildings that needed to be replaced, we have also had the official opening of the new Cessnock Fire Station – retiring the old station that was 109 years old. The new station has been built for future growth, with 4 vehicle bays built into it, even though there are currently only 2 vehicles. The new site is a stunning new look for this incredibly important service. And works are scheduled for renovations to the Kurri Kurri Fire Station that will bring it into the 21st century, although a new station in the coming years will still be on my radar of the things that need to happen.
Meanwhile the Government is also getting on with the job of trying to build our workforce numbers in hard to staff departments like education, health and police, because we all know that these services are often at the very front of our day to day needs across community. There are training incentives to attract people in; there are financial incentives for some of these workers to go regional which in some roles will include employment related housing; and then there are simpler incentives like the chance to work back in your home town, all being used to attract and keep these frontline workers.
It is such a refreshing change to have a Government delivering the services where they are needed most – using data and facts and statistics to inform the choices being made with public money. It is most definitely a nice change from the rorts and pork-barrelling that is a legacy of the former Government.