In what has become a political slanging match, at the heart of the matter is a much publicised declared bid by a ‘consortium’ to  acquire the old power plant, as it stands now, and the stated intention to spend a lot of money in a multi purpose re-birth focused on a transport hub.

Council has very rightly been attracted to the promise of a lot of job and a lot of trucks off Mountains roads.

But the owners, Energy Australia, see more value in demolition to create a greenfields site, although a large, flat greenfields site also owned by EA next to the power station has attracted no interest since two large alloy smelter projects (perhaps thankfully with hindsight) fell through years ago.

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Throw into the mix the fact that NSW taxpayers will be loaded with the cool $60 million or so for the demolition as part of the old privatisation deal and the situation is even more interesting.

Council  and Lithgow district job seekers are understandably wondering why the government refuses to support the new role.

There must be a reason and If the proposal doesn’t stand up to scrutiny then we need to know and accept that.

But the peculiar government silence against the backdrop of taxpayer millions for demolition will only add to the growing concerns and leaves State Member Paul Toole in an embarrassing position in the lead up to the March election.

MUCH indignation in recent days when Council seemed to indicate householders would be fined if they didn’t help out by maintaining their nature strips. Council quickly backtracked, blaming itself for a badly worded public announcement (and after former Local Government Minister Paul Toole telling them ‘you can’t do that’). Seems the warning was only meant for non-residential property owners; at least we think that’s what it meant. Irrespective of all that, Council can not possibly maintain nature strips all over town so it’s up to residents to their bit and that of their neighbours if the neighbour can’t manage. Well maintained neighbourhoods create a good impression so kick start your civic pride and start mowing.

WE hope dehydration wasn’t a problem for Australia Day patrons and picnic parties in QE Park during our scorcher. Visitors and locals have expressed frustration that there are no working taps available anywhere in the park and for some reason even the only water bubbler was disconnected months ago. If that’s water saving then it’s a bit extreme. Please explain.

CAN we bring forward the federal election so we can get rid of Clive Palmer’s mind numbing repetitive TV commercials, surely one of the most counter productive campaigns ever? He really does make Australia grate.