Happy New Year and best wishes for 2019 to all residents from Artarmon Village shops.

On the local front, stand-by for the long-awaited opening of the Zucchero Caffé Bar at 106 Hampden Road. Do not worry! The newly refitted Black and White Hair and Beauty Studio is still open at the rear!

Welcome and thank you for investing in our suburb. At last, we have seen some draft local centre strategies for Artarmon Village which are available to view online at www.haveyoursaywilloughby. com.au. There are also draft housing strategies to consider. Please review these and post feedback if you want your opinion heard.

 It is being suggested that work on Wilkes Avenue will commence this year. We are hoping that it will be made more sun and rain proof and with some lighting and better furniture to reinforce its position as a buzzing little food hub.

While an upgrade to Hampden Road is more complicated, we hope that it has not been put in the too hard basket and postponed indefinitely. More difficult considerations for Hampden Road include moving the traffic lights and widening the footpath to allow alfresco eating. AVI believes that simple, achievable improvements to Hampden Road could include extending parking restrictions across Saturday afternoon and Sunday and removing the clearways to ensure more parking.

Making the Hampden Road façade attractive to railway commuters would drive business and build residents pride in their suburb.

Most of all, Artarmon Village needs a public toilet. The railway toilets are often closed and not easy to get to in a hurry. We need an accessible, parent friendly, clean public toilet. Ideally, it would be adjacent to the Easy Access Lift at the railway station. For years now, AVI members have prioritised the need for public toilets above anything else. It is 2019! It is disgraceful that we do not have one on each side of the station

“This is the Artarmon Village section of the Artarmon Gazette. To read the full copy of the Gazette please click here“