LABOR and the Greens have committed to opening more Newcastle council debates to the public if either are successful at this weekend's lord mayoral byelection.
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Labor candidate Nuatali Nelmes and Greens candidate Therese Doyle on Monday signed an "open government reform package" which they say will keep less council information behind closed doors, put more in the public arena and increase the amount of community involvement in decision making.
As the candidates entered the final week of campaigning ahead of this Saturday's lord mayoral byelection, roads at Minmi rated a mention while concerns were also raised about how Ms Nelmes will fund her election promises.
Labor and the Greens announced a preference swap deal on Sunday which they hope will squeeze out the most prominent independent candidates Aaron Buman and Brad Luke.
Mr Buman, who spent nine years on previous councils, went into bat for the city's outer suburbs on Monday, committing to getting long-promised roadworks at Minmi under way. He produced council documents from 1996 when the council put its transport and roads plan for the Fletcher and Minmi area on public exhibition.
"2011 was the year that Minmi Road was supposed to be finished as a four-lane road," Mr Buman said. "It's Newcastle's biggest growth area, so what's happened? Are the works to be completed?"
Mr Luke, meanwhile, called Labor's promises into question. Ms Nelmes has promised to restore many of the services cut by the council in recent years as it moved to ward off the insolvency predicted by Treasury Corp.
Ms Nelmes said Mr Luke has "an atrocious record of cuts to vital services" including cuts to war memorial and lifeguard services.
However, Mr Luke said the council needs to fix its bottom line before it heads into financial oblivion.
DESPITE the low turnout of voters at last month’s state byelections, the Electoral Commission will not be sending reminder letters to Newcastle ratepayers about this Saturday’s lord mayoral byelection.
The commission took the unusual step of sending letters not only to voters in the state byelections, but also sent ‘do not vote’ letters to those who lived outside electorate borders to ease confusion.
But it will be sending no letters at all to those who have to vote this Saturday because Newcastle council decided it didn’t want ratepayers to foot the bill.
But it was still going ‘‘above and beyond’’ in meeting official requirements.
A council spokeswoman said such letters would cost about $1 per elector, or about $113,000 in total.
‘‘Instead, council has invested about $20,000 in TV advertising about the byelection and another $15,000 in newspaper advertising.’’
Only people living in the Newcastle council area are required to vote this Saturday. Failing to vote will attract a $55 fine.
