IT was the overseas study tour on which Lake Macquarie City Council spent an estimated $34,500 to send the mayor and two council colleagues to investigate smart technology cities.
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But some ratepayers didn’t think it was smart. At all.
Some criticised the tour, and spending, as unnecessary - especially in light of Lake Macquarie’s 57.48 per cent rate increase over seven years.
The fear being that ratepayers would derive insufficient benefit from the tour.
So what came of the three-week tour by mayor Kay Fraser, her deputy Cr Luke Cubis, and the council’s deputy CEO Tony Farrell to Asia and Europe?
Why was the tour necessary, and was it money well spent?
The fundamental drivers for Lake Macquarie wanting to become a smarter city are lifestyle, economic growth, and jobs.
Whether or not you believe facilitating economic growth is a fundamental responsibility of council, Cr Fraser isn’t prepared to sit in her office waiting for other tiers of government to make it happen.
“Given that Lake Macqaurie has 25 per cent of its population [employed] in manufacturing and mining, and we know those jobs won’t be there in the next 10 or 15 years, it’s really important for me as mayor to look at what jobs we can create for the future,” Cr Fraser said.
Such smart job creation would happen in collaboration with universities and other heads of government, she said.
The idea of the study tour, then, was for the council delegation to learn first-hand from other smart city successes, failures and challenges.
Cities with a reputation for their smart city programs were prioritised – Singapore, Tel Aviv, Eindhoven, Amsterdam, Copenhagan, London, Manchester, Bristol, and Croydon.
A preliminary report on the tour results has been presented to councillors.
It summarises what the delegation saw, and the take-home lessons learned.
In Singapore, the delegation saw how a “digital twin” had been created of Singapore to inform planning and development. “Similar tools would be useful in Lake Mac (if costs could be mitigated),” the report said.
In Tel Aviv, Isreal, the city’s DigiTel personalised web and mobile communication platform with residents impressed.
“It provides daily updates via email, SMS and personal e-accounts on location-specific, individually tailored services such as road closures, schools, events and developments,” the report said.
Making news:
The delegation noted Tel Aviv’s geographic information system team used the same software as Lake Macquarie. “A long-term relationship with their team could be helpful once we have bedded down our new systems,” the report said.
In Eindhoven, The Netherlands, the delegation saw how a city of 223,000 people had been forced to transform into “a hub of knowledge industries and training” in the mid-1990s after its manufacturing sector collapsed.
In Amsterdam, technical glitches and information errors in a self-guided app of the city for visitors proved a lesson in “what not to do” in Lake Macquarie.
On the plus side, the delegation saw how Amsterdam City Council had created “landing pads” for start-ups, “similar to what is under consideration in Lake Macquarie”.
In Manchester, technology was being used to increase physical fitness. Sensors and an associated app encouraged commuters to walk to the next bus stop while waiting for public transport.
A key learning point from the visit to London was that “increased liveability attracts creative enterprises, start-ups and small business”.
“We focused on the precinct around the Tate Modern – a former power station that opened as a modern art museum in 2000, triggering a reinvention of the entire area,” the report said.
Could that be a possible new use for the decommissioned Wangi Wangi power station?
Cr Fraser refuted criticism that a phone call or Google search could have revealed everything the council wanted to learn.
“You’ll see that in all levels of government, that’s not how it works,” she said.
Cold calling the head of a tech giant in Sweden, from Australia, and asking to pick their brain was not going to get the job done.
“You can only make those connections face to face… and by seeing and feeling. You can’t make those networks on Google.”
The council would soon be talking to residents about its new digital strategy, and innovations it wanted to introduce across the city, Cr Fraser said.
