Penny has been serving a lot of the Lane Cove Electorate for the past 5 years
Penny was elected to the East Ward of Ryde Council in 2017 and has worked hard for the community ever since, fighting for new infrastructure including
- the Pittwater Road shared cycleway;
- the Putney Park swim site steps;
- Sager Place upgrade and other small business centre upgrades;
- Glades Bay Riverwalk extension and
- Penny fought for the expansion and masterplan of Blenheim Regional Park.
Penny initiated Ryde's
- first Reconciliation Action Plan
- Child minding services;
- March Against Abuse
- Battle of the bands
- Riverside Markets
- EV charging
- the ban on single use plastic by council
- widespread street tree planting
and along with the Ryde Council Labor team over saw the plans for a new civic building; delivered regional playgrounds; a multilevel carpark; protected heritage precincts and endangered forest among many other projects.
Personal
Penny is a creative with a background in theatre, television, radio, production and governance (Board director at the Griffin Theatre company). She has lived in the Lane cove electorate at East Ryde with husband Jeff and two sons for 16 years. One son is at University and the other attends a local public high school. Both attended public schools in Ryde.
Climate and Environment
Penny is a long time climate activist, conservationist; Climate council CPP local leader and NSW organiser of the Labor Environment Action Network.
Her passion for clean waterways led to 5 years as delegate and 4 years as Vice Chair of the Parramatta River Catchment Group, collaborating with several government agencies and 10 other councils to deliver a masterplan to make the river swimmable again by 2025. This includes the impending launch of the swim site's at Putney and Hunters Hill.
Penny currently represents local Government in NSW as a metropolitan Director of Local Government NSW; has represented Northern Regional Councils as Vice president of NSROC and as an alternate delegate to the Northern Sydney Planning Panel.
Equality
Penny was a finalist in the Women in Local Government Awards 2020; sits on the Ryde Hunters Hill Domestic and Family Violence Committee and is on the board of the NSW Australian Local government Women's Association - to help more women get elected to councils across NSW.
She also sits on the governance research reference group for Side by Side disability advocacy and volunteers as a certified wildlife rescuer here in the Northern Suburbs.
Sport
Penny’s family have been annually involved in local sporting groups including soccer, Futsal, Baseball and Hockey over the last 16 years.
Arts
She has been a board director, and has volunteered for over a decade as an arts/music presenter, at Northside radio 99.3FM and is a Local Government Delegate to the NSW Music Festival Roundtable.
