In the past three decades, our city has seen and brought about monumental change.

By the early 1990s, we had a population of about 160,000 - it is now more than 200,000.

Back then, Redhead tip was still open and three-man garbo crews manually collected your unsorted waste.

You borrowed cassettes from the library instead of eBooks, councillors were known as aldermen, and the only concrete footpaths were in front of a few shops in Warners Bay.

There were certainly not the expansive kilometres of shared pathways around the lake's foreshore that we now enjoy.

When I reflect on these achievements of our council and community, I feel extremely proud to represent this amazing city.

I remain committed to my role as mayor of Lake Macquarie until September 2016, and am passionate about doing what I can to make our community an even better place to live in, work in and play.

Do you have an idea on how we can make Lake Macquarie a better place to live?

This month, my fellow councillors and I will be dropping by local shopping centres for Meet Your Councillors sessions. This is a great opportunity to ask us questions.

We look forward to hearing from you about ways we can improve Lake Macquarie city.