Prominent developer Jeff McCloy has thrown his hat in the ring to become Newcastle’s Lord Mayor.
NBN caught up with Mr McCloy, who says cleaning up Hunter Street is a priority.
1. Why have you decided to run for Lord Mayor of Newcastle?
“Well I guess when I was recently in Tamworth and having a look at the main street, I had a look at the seats and the garbage bins and the tiled footpaths and the trees and I reminisced about Newcastle and its main street and I think why can’t we have a main street to our city like this. So I guess it’s the physical form of our city when, I’m here in Singapore looking at the beautiful trees and the greenery and the artwork in the streets and we have nothing. And it just takes a bit of leadership, I believe, to change what we have got.”
2. You are a developer, was this move born from the frustration of watching the inner city stagnate for so long?
“I just watch nothing happen and unless someone stands that wants to create and do something we’ll just have more of the same, and more of the same is just not good enough. We have to move forward, we have to create change, we have to be better than what we have been.”
3. Would there be conflicts of interest between being mayor and your developments in the inner city?
“No, I’ve only got a couple of projects yet to go. I won’t even attend meetings if any of my people put things up. I’ll ensure, and others will ensure of course, that there is no conflict of interest. Most of our work is in other areas like Tamworth and Muswellbrook and Armidale and other places, so we have not got a lot in the city. But clearly there will be no conflict of interest.
I don’t want any renumeration for it, whatever that is will go to a charity so I am not doing it for the sake of any return from it. I am just sick and tired of looking at the city that we’ve got.
4. You are a resident of Belmont running for Newcastle Mayor, why not run for mayor of Lake Macquarie?
I have a house in Newcastle, our main office is in Newcastle, our headquarters are in Newcastle and we have lots of properties in the city. And I am looking forward to getting an apartment in the city next year. So currently I live in Belmont but we have enormous interests in the city itself.
“Newcastle is the capital of the Hunter and the Hunter’s been poorly looked after by the State and Federal government political decisions for quite some time. You can do more things for the Hunter Valley itself by being Mayor of the city of Newcastle rather than anywhere else.
5. What do you think of the current group of councillors’ performance?
“All people have good intentions but good intentions don’t translate to physical doing. And when you look at our main street and the city centre, it’s quite appalling, it’s dirty, it’s run down, it’s untidy, it’s not loved and it needs some care and attention and it needs some leadership to get that back.”
6. What is the first thing you would do if elected?
Put art in the streets and clean up Hunter Street
7. Do you have a running party?
I’m running as an independent, I could work with most people as long as we leave politics out of it and get on with the business of fixing the city up.
8. How do you rate your chances of becoming mayor?
Pretty good otherwise I wouldn’t run.
Can the council get the inner city moving or is that the job of the State and Federal Governments?
” Of course council can, it can by policy, it can by attitude and it can by doing. Of course you need to enlist the state, we are the sixth biggest city in Australia and it’s been shabbily treated by its own state and federal governments for far too long. That has to change.”
10. Is there anything else you would like to add?
” By comparison, when Canberra was a cow paddock and Newcastle was a city, you can see what happens with politics. When all that money gets spent and diverted into Canberra its streets and trees and parks are beautifully looked after, yet our main street isn’t. So you can do these things and you should do these things but I think there has been 29 reports about the street scape of Hunter street yet no one has done anything. So it is time for doing and to stop talking and doing more reports.”
Yes, yes, yes. I am going to vote for Jeff McCloy. I do not understand how the people of this city can live in such filth. It just needs to be cleaned up.
Hey Jeff. Guess what? Tamworth has got a great main street and is thriving. But it doesn’t have a Westfield or anything resembling Charlestown square to impact on it. (maybe you can get your contruction company to bulldoze these- to bring Hunter street back to life) Shopping has changed from the 1960’s- noone wants to park 100 miles away and walk. Gosford has the same problem in their main street that used to be the place to shop- and again, it has two main players impacting on this. Erina Fair and westfield Tuggerah. Councils think about how new construction impacts on things close-by-maybe they should think about impacts on other areas of their city.Next suggestion Jeff?
what does putting art in the street mean? Is this more of the lovely Marcus Westbury shop fronts that Jeff thinks are like Beirut?
Some advice for Jeff and the recent ‘monopoly’ adverts published by Nuatalie. Jeff, contact the makers of Monopoly and advise them to sue Nuatalie for breach of trademark. That should get her thinking about pulling silly stunts like that again.
Newcastle should be thankfull that a Man of Jeffs ability wants to take the Challenge. We must support and back him. Thanks Jeff.
Having a Developer as Lord Mayor _IS_ a conflict of interest. Just because he doesn’t attend council meetings does not reduce the influence he has to get decisions made and to access otherwise sensitive information that a normal developer would never be told.
ICAC awaits you, Mr McCloy.