A much-needed new fire station is officially on the cards for Cessnock, after the NSW Government handed down its 2022-23 budget this week.
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The budget, announced on Tuesday, included $350,000 for the planning phases of a new fire station in Cessnock - from a total investment of $6.35 million over the next three years.
The budget also included the first $500,000 towards the $111.5 million redevelopment of Cessnock Hospital, which was announced in November and is projected to be complete by 2027.
Cessnock MP Clayton Barr welcomed these budget items, but was disappointed not to see any funding for schools in the electorate, and little to address homelessness across the state.
"It is good to see the $111.5 million hospital redevelopment officially listed in the budget. This makes it much more official and certain than the simple media release that announced the massive re-development funding six months ago," Mr Barr said.
"There is a small amount of planning money for a new fire station for Cessnock. This has been a conversation I have been having with government for a number of years - no one was arguing to keep the current 106-year-old fire station as a long-term solution for modern firefighting.
"The fire trucks these days barely, just barely, fit through the doors.
"The big question will be when to make the station a 24/7 permanent firefighter staffed operation. It is inevitable and I imagine that the new station will be built to have 24/7 capacity.
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"It was disappointing that there was no planning or construction funding in the budget for some really important school infrastructure in our local area. Massive housing developments like those at Heddon Greta, Huntlee and Cameron Park are in desperate need of schools.
"And it was incredibly disappointing that there is so little in the budget to address homelessness. Our local neighbourhoods are fast becoming unaffordable and unavailable for anyone trying to survive on a low-medium income.
"We need a massive increase in social and affordable housing, right across NSW, but this was nowhere to be seen in the budget."
Mr Barr also argued that the government isn't serious about transitioning mining communities, after its $25 million Royalties for Rejuvenation fund wasn't expanded, despite the extra $810 million in coal royalties that will flow into the state's coffers this year.
"You can't just transform the culture and the values of a community with one little $200,000 grant, you actually have to get in with them and stick with them for at least one, two or three generations to shift that and it's not going to be cheap," he said.
"We can either get the funds through the resources we are digging out of the ground or wait for the taxpayer to pick up the tab later down the track, rather than the companies making mega-profits."
The state budget revealed a $5 million spend to establish a protoyping and manufacturing facility for hydrogen energy storage in the Hunter.
Mr Barr said it was a drop in the bucket for what will be a complex and expensive transition.
"I think that amount for hydrogen is simply a gesture of saying we want to be in the conversation but not the frontrunner, not the bigger player and not really drive it forward," he said.
"It's like having a toe in the water and saying you've been for a swim."
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