Easter

Keeping the community safe is at
the forefront of everything we do here at Council.
And I know our local Police work tirelessly day in and day out to keep our community safe. We should be proud of the work they do for us
and not feel threatened or anxious walking past a police officer in
the community.
We’ve been joining forces with local Police to reduce crime rates, and
I’m proud to see the latest statistics show a downward trend of crime in Canterbury-Bankstown. We’re also under the NSW State average for
the number of criminal offences
in our City.
Just last year, I joined our new commander of the Bankstown Local Area Command, Superintendent Adam Johnson, to meet locals and hear any concerns. It was great to see so many people wanting to express their gratitude for the work Police do and reinforce how much they enjoyed seeing Police out and about.
And we will continue working together to engage the community and achieve our shared goal of keeping Canterbury-Bankstown
safe for all.
Council staff, along with local
Police officers, will be doing the rounds to each ward in the City to chat to locals about crime prevention initiatives in their area. Throughout the year, they will be visiting all the town centres in our City, starting today at Roselands Shopping Centre.
I encourage you all to come along and meet the Council staff and Police at these outreach sessions, chat about any concerns you may have and learn about what initiatives are happening in your area.
To find out when they will be
at a location near you, visit
cb.city/LocalSafetySessions
Keeping the community safe is a
joint effort and we must all do our
bit to stay informed and achieve the best outcome.
Yours sincerely,
Clr Khal Asfour
MAYOR
26 April 2023
Dear Residents
Mayoral Message

As Anzac Day draws closer, it is a reminder to pay tribute and honour the brave men and women who lost their lives and who served our country at war. It is a day you will hear the phrase “lest we forget” repeated many times. But have you ever stopped to think about why we say those words?
Borrowed from a line in an 1897
Rudyard Kipling poem Recessional,
the phrase “lest we forget” means
“it should not be forgotten”. The English poet wrote Recessional for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee,
and it became more common across Australia and New Zealand after
World War I.
The words “lest we forget” hold a special significance for me when
I talk about World War II veteran
Reg Chard.
The now 99-year-old Villawood
local joined the army as soon as he turned 18 and in 1942, after the fall of Singapore, he and his fellow soldiers were sent to Papua New Guinea to
fight in the treacherous Kokoda
Track campaign.
After returning home with a serious case of malaria and tropical dermatitis, Reg has continued to serve his community long after the war.
His passion remains sharing his experiences with school students
and visitors at the Kokoda Memorial Track Walkway.
He has been, and still is, very active in the local community and is dedicated to keeping the memory of our fallen heroes alive.
That’s what “lest we forget” means to me. It’s about honouring the memory of our fallen heroes and learning from them. It’s about being inspired by them and keeping their stories in our hearts.
I am very proud of our resilient community and pleased that our residents are keen to keep the ANZAC tradition of mateship, courage and sacrifice alive.
This Anzac Day, I encourage you all to attend a local dawn service and pay your respects to those who have sacrificed their lives for us today.
We must never forget.
To find an Anzac Day event near you, visit www.rslnsw.org.au