Newcastle's newly elected Liberal dominated council is now well past its 100 day milestone, and despite some initial media speculation that the new council might be more harmonious than its bitterly divided predecessor, tensions were evident at the very first meeting.
Clr Andrea Rufo, the only successful candidate of the Community 1 group that emerged from the Laman St figs campaign, used his first balance-of-power vote to install a major figs opponent, Liberal councillor Brad Luke, as the new Deputy Lord Mayor, along the way breaking the established Newcastle practice of rotating the Deputy position among all interested councillors.
The newly elected Lord Mayor, Clr Jeff McCloy, attracted immediate controversy, proposing that the council employ his election campaign manager as his chief Lord Mayoral advisor.
He withdrew the proposal after a public outcry, but was moved enough by questions asked about the matter by Newcastle Ward 4 councillor Jason Dunn to leave him a voice mail message telling Clr Dunn he would "get what you deserve" if he kept it up.
Clr McCloy also drew the ire of the union, which referred his proposal and comments he made about council staff to the Industrial Relations Commission.
One legacy of the previous council - the proposed disposal of council-owned childcare facilities - was postponed to consider other options.
However, the new conservative council quickly followed the lead of the previous council in axing Newcastle's Show Holiday, and making noises about cutting or privatising council services.
As the year closed, the thought-bubble politics that so plagued the previous council returned with a rushed but short-lived decision for two hour free parking in the Newcastle CBD over the Christmas period.
The council will be reviewing its parking strategy this year.
As I predicted in my November column, just as we were all settling back to enjoy the cricket, the beach and too much good food and festal cheer, the local news that dominated the close of the year was the state government's long-rumoured announcement that it intends to cut the Newcastle rail line at Wickham.
At the same time, they were announcing new rail lines and services for Sydney.
The previous proposal to cut the rail line and build a new terminus at Wickham under the former Labor government was estimated to cost more than $300million - and that was without any alternative replacement system.
Without providing detailed costings of their proposed alternative, the O'Farrell government has announced that it will allocate $120million, and will seek a similar amount from the Federal government.
NSW Planning Minister, Brad Hazzard, said that the entire package may be considerably more than the initial outlay, but would not reveal further estimates because the private sector would be involved in some of the work.
The proposal is presented as part of the state government's Newcastle Urban Renewal Strategy 2012, which is now on public exhibition for comment until 17 March.
Newcastle councillors are as divided on this issue as the local community.
It's sure to dominate local politics for much of this year, and is likely to be a key local issue in the election for the federal seat of Newcastle, given that the Coalition state government wants the Federal government to chip in to help cover the costs of cutting the line.
The Department of Planning website says that community information forums will be held during the exhibition period, at dates and venues to be announced.
See the website for more information, at: http://www.planning.nsw.gov.
