Blacktown City Council - Media Release - Battling The Heat With Trees

12 June 2019

Schofields and Mount Druitt are set to have more than 100

new trees lining residential streets as part of Blacktown City 

Council’s plans to reduce urban heat.

Blacktown City Council is working alongside NRMA 

Insurance as part of the Cool Streets^© program, enabling the 

planting of 113 trees.

Cool Streets^© is an initiative developed by Dr Libby 

Gallagher of Gallagher Studio that encourages local 

communities to take the lead in choosing the right trees to 

cool their neighbourhoods.

Blacktown City Mayor Stephen Bali MP said: “Urban heat is 

a major challenge for Blacktown and tree planting is one of 

the methods to reduce the impact.

“The Cool Streets initiative allows communities to be 

involved, they are given the opportunity to choose and care 

for the trees planted around their homes.

“Trees in residential streets are beneficial to the 

communities. They can reduce household air-conditioning 

costs, reduce local air pollution, help store carbon and even 

add value to house prices.”

NRMA Insurance Safer Communities Executive Manager 

Jen Cobley said: “We’re excited to be part of this Cool 

Streets^© initiative and help to tackle heat stress in Western 

Sydney.

“We know that when trees and vegetation are removed, the 

temperatures can soar and by revegetating areas we’ll be 

creating cooler streets benefiting the community and the 

environment by increasing shade and reducing 

CO² emissions.

“The NRMA Insurance Good ‘Hoods program focuses on 

how we can support local community-led initiatives that will 

help communities feel more connected, which will allow 

them to be stronger, safer and more confident.”

Blacktown City Council - Media Release - Blacktown City Council Backs NRMA

MEDIA RELEASE

24 August, 2017

The Mayor of Blacktown City, Councillor Stephen Bali backs calls by the NRMA for improved NSW Government funding for local roads.

“The NSW government puts a choke on income, has its own backlog of state-owned roads that it is not maintaining and, as the NRMA rightly says, is shirking its funding responsibility across the state,” Mayor Bali said.

“There are many councils across the state with larger road maintenance backlogs than Blacktown, yet we all share the same problem and fully support the NRMA’s call.”

“Blacktown City Council has managed to reduce its backlog by 17 per cent – one of the best results in the metropolitan area – but at a cost to other areas of operation.

The NRMA rightly identifies rate-capping as a major cause of Councils getting behind in road maintenance, Mayor Bali said.

“When the state government quite unfairly puts a state-wide cap of 1.5 per cent on council rate rises, which is significantly less than the CPI, it’s almost as if they are trying to deliberately sabotage the economic performance of the Local Government sector.

“Blacktown has a challenge, because its roads stretch from Sydney to beyond Adelaide yet the NSW Government can’t even provide the arterial roads we need in our local area to support a 200,000 population growth.

“There needs to be a major road needs audit which properly addresses how we best keep up with Sydney’s rapidly growing population as it approaches 8 million people.

“It’s all very well for Premier Berejiklian to talk about bullet trains while the rest of us are moving at a snail’s pace on clogged and choked roads,” Mayor Bali said.