Former Gosford Mayor and Mariners coach Lawrie McKinna will spearhead a 15-person team of candidates at the September 14 Council election.
Team Central Coast will field three candidates for each of the region’s five wards.
McKinna will stand for the Gosford East ward, along with ultra marathon runner and former Federal Minister Pat Farmer, and former Mariners player Matt Simon.
Standing for The Entrance ward will be ex-Wallaby Mark Ella, former NBN personality Skaie Hull, and community activist Kalvin Smith.
Business owner Kyla Daniels will stand for Wyong ward, along with former Newcastle University lecturer and global project manager in education Natasha Stone, and Central Coast Football Soccer CEO Alex Burgin.
In Gosford West ward local business owner Daniel Abou-Chedid (Chef Daniel) will run, along with Central Coast Sports College Principal Paul Chapman, as well as Ettalong Bowling Club board member and Southern Ettalong Football Club life member Neil Ferguson.
And in Budgewoi ward former Socceroo captain and sports presenter Paul Wade will be joined by former Gosford Council senior and RDA Central Coast CEO John Mouland, and business owner and community activist Mitch Cowan.
McKinna stood for election as an independent for City of Gosford in 2012, succeeded in gaining a seat at the table and was subsequently elected Mayor by his fellow councillors.
He was removed from the position as a result of the amalgamation of Gosford and Wyong councils in 2016.
“The Central Coast is falling behind regional centres,” he said.
“As the third most populous council in NSW, a newly elected council needs to reflect the aspirations of its residents and leverage the region’s huge economic and social potential to prompt its long-term growth and development.
“Council must prioritise residents in decision-making and after almost eight years in administration, it is time the residents of the Central Coast are listened to by a sensible, forward-looking and strong newly elected Council.”
McKinna said the team’s main focus would be on housing.
“For too long the residents of the Central Coast have been neglected and forgotten,” he said.
“The region needs a strong and independent council which will hold our government accountable and put residents first to deliver better housing supply, strong infrastructure, and more considered planning.
“Slow and complicated approval processes, a lack of necessary infrastructure and minimal support by the state and federal government have pushed the Central Coast into a housing crisis.
“The Central Coast needs a proactive, progressive and efficient Council that will provide affordable and accessible housing to support long-term growth.”
McKinna said the team would also push for affordable, efficient and effective health services.
“Council needs to work with the state and federal government to boost staff and infrastructure in health to ensure Central Coast residents have access to best quality healthcare,” he said.
“Spikes in emergency wait times and the under-funding of the health system have failed Central Coast residents time and time again.
“Council needs to work to improve health services by streamlining health services, increasing workforce productivity and supporting the development of health infrastructure that meets the needs of residents.”
Also on the team’s priority list is improving the region’s transport infrastructure.
“Poor public transport on the Central Coast inhibits regional productivity and increases dependency on roads,” McKinna said.
“The region’s current public transport system is not reliable, efficient or easily accessible for many residents outside of town centres.
“Improving ease of access throughout the region via public transport will increase the quality of life of residents, as road congestion is a growing concern.
“Improvements to existing train stations and intermodal connections will also aid accessibility.
“Mass transit connectivity to the region with potential to connect communities, including improved access to Sydney and Newcastle, is highlighted as a priority by RDA Central Coast.”
McKinna said successive councils had failed to accommodate for increasing levels of migration to the Central Coast.
“An efficient and progressive council backed by the support of the state and federal government is necessary to support population growth on the Central Coast and boost economic growth and development,” he said.
McKinna said Team Central Coast would also agitate to ensure there was sufficient infrastructure in place to support tourism growth.
“This is especially pertinent with respect to short-term accommodation rentals, and other hospitality related initiatives,” he said.
“The Central Coast is losing its market share of the key Sydney outbound visitor market because of the lack of necessary infrastructure to support tourism.”
When McKinna ran for the seat of Robertson he put all of his preferences towards the liberal party and got Lucy wicks elected. I wonder how many of these so called “independent” candidates are just liberal party stand ins and if this team is just a boost for the liberal party numbers under the guise of a independent candidates.
This team is backed financially by a developer, they will just be pushing forward his agenda and projects.
Dylan Burgess, that’s probably not a bad thing, however not likely. You only need to attend the various Business Chambers in the region to see that its not just developers needing change, also just about every small business that calls the Central Coast their business home. This council LGA suffered a catastrophe with the inaugural amalgamated council. Too many councillors, with the majority (the recalcitrant eight) all pushing political ideological agenda’s which destroyed the region and left a massive debt to be footed by all rate payers and residents. Even under the Administrater, they have never fixed the root cause of the amalgamation. It is no wonder this LGA has lost twenty years of potential growth and development with the region being the most backward LGA in Australia. Time for a change.
FACT:,Historically the vast majority of “ so called independents “ are Liberals in disguise, masquerading as “ so called independents “.
Unfortunately, the ratepayers & residents will vote 🗳 for known people of name recognition and not being aware of their policy positions on various issues.
I do not neccessarily agree with this statement. The people running as independents are not liberal party members in disguise. They are though, in the majority, have right wing leaning, pro-business (to stimulate the economy) and as most of them either own and run their own businesses or hold management positions in larger corporations understand that running a council is a business. Most importantly, unlike those people on the left, also know how to read and analyse a balance sheet and Loss and Profit Statement which clearly “left” majority of the former councillors did not have a clue and were clearly in it to push their own agenda’s and not for the benefit of the ratepayers. Shellharbour Council is a good example.
still upset those pesky “lefties” wouldn’t let you decimate ecological important land for your airport?
I wouldn’t trust any of these people. The previous councillors were dodgy to say the least most were aligned to a political party some had an agenda some were there to help their mates others were so far left they were off the planet. This council should be split up and portioned off to neighbouring councils it’s too. If it has. Ever attracted competent people such as CEO the current one is way out of his depth the whole council areas road and infrastructure assets are or have fallen apart it’s a reactive council only very poorly skilled operational staff very under qualified front line supervisors incompetent directors /managers. The whole council structure is archaic it’s the type of structure used 25 years ago and doesn’t work. Do let’s see how long these new councillors last.
This is a team that is running in the past and trying to put a former Mayor back into office after being apart of the debt the Central Coast is now in ! How could any rate payer re-vote a team of so call independents running together that will only have one agenda to push land development for personal financial gains. Should we not want a better future for our Central Coast??
We need people with common sense. And stop the corruption off the past.