It seems that we've been presented with a golden opportunity and council really needs to take advantage of it. I call on the council to orgnise a formal meeting with the current NSW Planning Minister Kristina Keneally to discuss specifically what the regional city status means and how Liverpool can go about making the most of it. Because, yes there are vague definitions and explinations of it on various government planning website,s but they all vaguely say that the new classification will bring Liverpool more jobs, will lead to government offices moving to the area, will see growth and development in the suburb and the like. But what does that actually mean? There are plans for Liverpool to grow, but they need to be worked towards and at this rate, everyone just want to make vague comments about it growing without explaining how and when. Obviously many Liverpool suburbs are in the south west growth centre zone, so the land there will be rezoned and released for residential, at some point. From what I can tell not soon ,though. It could be 30 years before it happens.

But we're already a regional city now. So councillors should work to see what we can get out of it before the population doubles to more than 300,000 people. Why not use that status to push the State Government to return many of it's offices to Liverpool. Bringing jobs for locals and customers for local businesses, with them. If anything, recently these offices seem to have been fleeing Liverpool in droves, for reasons, that at least to me seem to be a mystery.

I mean the advantages of basing a business in Liverpool seem quite self-evident. It is in a central location to all other regions of Sydney, located right on the M7 and the M5 and at off peak times a 30 minute drive to both the airport and city. Apart from that we have a young, well educated population, but at the same time high unemployment, meaning we have an inbuilt workforce. And as I said before people are already coming here for shopping and healthcare, so really if government offices were here, we could be a real hub of acitivity for the whole region, as the regional city tag implies that we should be. It seems obvious. So why isn't it happening?

There also seems to be a lack of commercial investment in the CBD as well. We have plenty of industrial firms investing in Liverpool and setting up shops in our many industrial zones in Prestons, Chipping Norton, Moorebank and the like. But not many new solicitors firms, engineering consultancies, accountants, specialty stores and similar are moving into the area. This is a group that we seem to have difficulty attracing. And it could be for a few reasons.

The ones that jump into my mind, immediately are parking and safety. Business people don't feel safe investing in the area and setting up a shop or a consultancy or an office here, if they're store will be hit with graffiti, or robbed and their customers will never even make it through the doors because they won't be able to find parking. But maybe these are just issues in our over extended CBD? And who says the regional city status needs to focus on our CBD?

There are many more user-friendly suburbs and locations that government offices could be located in and where commercial investment could be encouraged. Any of the larger town centres would suit. Obviously it would be ideal for everything to be centralised in and around the CBD, but I think with only the existing streets couldn't be impossible. After all, we are soon to be the proud hosts of the largest hospital in the southern hemisphere and we already have parking woes and bumper to bumper traffic. There will be a new car park with the hospital, but then again the staff working there will double and so will it's capacity of patients, so arguably twice as many people will make their way there everyday, then do so now. So other options should be explored.

It's up to the mayor and the councillors to now stand up and explore them, they need to get more vocal about moving Liverpool forward and start thinking about these big picture issues. We're a regional centre, lets start acting like one.