Consider this. Had it not been for COVID Lithgow and communities across NSW would be in election mode and suffering through an endless torrent of claims, promises and plain wishful thinking from a multitude of Local Government wannabes.

But the pandemic has put an end to that for the year we would all prefer to forget and Council election have been postponed for 12 months for the first time that anyone can recall.

On the normal four year cycle the Lithgow Council elections would be held next month but there's nothing normal about this year.

But, all is not lost on the local front; Mayoral elections are held yearly on the first meeting in September and, unless something has recently changed, that will be the case next month.

Ah, a little touch of normality!

The Mayor is elected by fellow Councillors so you won't have to suffer through any campaigning.

But you can bet there's wheeling and dealing under way behind the scenes.

What makes it interesting is that Mayor Ray Thompson and Deputy Mayor Wayne McAndrew, two of our most experienced representatives, had last year indicated they would be retiring from long careers on Council at the general election but that is now on hold for another year.

Both have done a capable job in the leadership roles so should they seek another term the interest will be in who else wants to wear the mayoral robes and just where allegiances lay.

THERE will no doubt be weeping and gnashing of teeth in some quarters with last drinks long ago called at Lithgow's Grand Central and Court House Hotels.

And none more perhaps in the case of the local ALP branches for whom over decades the Courty was their own Tree of Knowledge.

It was around the bar that the true believers celebrated or sobbed or plotted the next moves in all three levels of politics and it was even at the Courty that Paul Keating and wife Anita shared a drink with the locals when he 'met the people' on his campaign trail towards the Prime Ministership..

With the loss of this traditional home it's where to now for our Laborites.

STILL with the Court House Hotel and there's quite a bit of speculation about its future under new ownership.

It won't be a pub after well over a century and correspondents are expressing the hope that whatever happens in the new life there will be positive steps to save from destruction the art works of the late multi talented artist Antony Symonds that adorn the external walls.

And we'll drink to that.

WITH the two hotels and landmark Bracey mansion all now sold the remaining big ticket item in town at the moment is the Theatre Royal.

Our art deco gem has been sitting lonely and silent witness to the passing parade for years (since not long after undergoing a major and costly upgrade to comply with modern regulations).

The street grapevine claims there was positive interest a while back but the bidder lost interest when Council rejected his wish for even further extended trading hours.

Such action by Council, if true, would be welcome by the neighbourhood, police and community in general weary of the hoodlum behaviour and early morning mayhem that all too often accompanied the various past lives of the Royal as a 'Nitespot'.

Meantime the graffiti dummies are making an unsightly mess of sections of the western wall.

Hard to know, though, just who's responsible for a much needed clean up.