NSW NSW Council Mergers

"The state government last week reiterated its determination to reduce the 152 councils currently in NSW.

Mr Baird told a hostile audience at a Local Government NSW conference that fewer councils would mean "we have hundreds of millions of dollars that we can put to work for our ratepayers".

The NSW government asked IPART in April to assess whether or not councils met criteria meaning they were "fit for the future".

The process has been controversial, with many councils perceiving the looming threat of forced amalgamations, while IPART's methodology has come under fire.

Sydney councils deemed fit for the future
Auburn, Burwood and City of Canada Bay (merger proposal)
Bankstown
Blue Mountains City
Camden
Penrith City Council
Randwick and Waverley (merger proposal)
Sutherland Shire
The Hills Shire
Wollondilly Shire

Sydney councils deemed unfit
Ashfield City Council
Blacktown City Council
Botany Bay Council
Campbelltown City Council
Canterbury City Council
Fairfield City Council
Hawkesbury City Council
Holroyd City Council
Hornsby Shire Council
Hunters Hill Council
Hurstville City Council
Kogarah City Council
Ku-ring-gai Council
Lane Cove Council
Leichhardt Municipal Council
Liverpool City Council
Manly Council
Marrickville Council
Mosman Municipal Council
North Sydney Council
Parramatta City Council
Pittwater Council
Rockdale City Council
Ryde City Council
Strathfield Municipal Council
Sydney City Council (as a Global City)
Warringah Council
Willoughby City Council
Woollahra Municipal Council

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/ipart-report-the-sydney-councils-facing-the-axe-20151020-gkdce0.html



What does everyone think of these proposed mergers. I didn't realise how extensive the council amalgamation proposal was. I live in the Blacktown council, and was surprised to see that it was found "unfit" in the IPART's report.
The advantages I definitely see is in cost savings due to economies of scale, and removal of repetition.

I think people that oppose these mergers argue from the stand point of having their council deluded by less privileged or profitable councils. But that should not be a reason to not go ahead. Anyone else oppose this on other grounds?

What impacts will this have on property investors? For example, more/less restrictive regulations?

 

haha why would anyone be surprised to find Blacktown council unfit?

Sooner the better I say, and if Clover goes, break out the champagne.

 

It's pretty ridiculous that, say, one small suburb in Sydney (Hunters Hill) is it's own local government area.

 

I would hate for my local government to merge with Auburn.... its already been demonstrated that there is a gross misuse of power in that council.

 

Hopefully by merging we can remove the misuse as they won't have one ethnic majority. At the same time there it's danger of them corrupting decent councils too.

 

Burwood is similar, you could almost count the streets in one hand
There must be some nervous dead wood floating around! The back stabbing and mud slinging will be in full swing to save their "jobs"

 

I hope we can avoid being merged with Canterbury Council, another bunch of corrupt pricks... but since Bankstown is apparently fit that doesn't leave much hope for avoiding Canterbury. Boo! :-(

 

Mosman as well.
And North Sydney
Well, you get the picture.

The worst Council to deal with for small projects is City of Sydney. In now way a global city - even Wyong accepts electronic lodgement. Sydney you need to print everything off 4 times, and actually deliver it in person to Council staff who have been trained to refuse an application on very trivial grounds.

 

I won't complain about the forced amalgamations, pretty much inevitable.

 

Does anyone know what percentage of staff actually live in the council area they work for?

You could argue that bigger council areas may lose that "community spirit " and knowledge but given that nowadays it's just about getting a job and brown nosing your way to the top that argument is no longer valid

 

Particularly in the Sydney Councils. I'd like to see someone who works for the maintenance team at Hunters Hill Council actually living in Hunters Hill...

 

Bigger is better for councils. They get access to better staff can plan better and are more able to be scruitinised by media etc. It also generally means they become more efficient ( efficient being a relative term...).

This should have been done years ago in Sydney.

 

Why can't the State Government allow residents to vote about whether they wish to amalgamate and with whom.

At the end of the day they are the ones paying the rates and putting up with the services.

Hornsby Council are treating this ad a done deal and are selling everything they can in Ward C as they expect to lose that area.

Not good for the locals.

 

Amalgamate most councils and remove the state government. Imagine how much money we can save!

 

@devank - not going to happen. Federal Government came about as an agreement between the states. No states = no federation, no starship enterprise.

@Chilliblue - referenda require a guided set of possible outcomes and questions. You can't ask an open ended question of 25 million people and expect a single answer.

 

I don't know, I'm in two minds about this. I have lived in Strathfield Council, and in Canada Bay Council - Strathfield was dodgy as, Canada Bay (which was already the result of amalgamations) was awesome. CB had heaps of funding and was able to achieve a lot. Strathfield council had a link to the ICAC inquiry on its homepage. Strathfield was against amalgamation, but they really needed to be gotten rid of.

I now live in Newcastle Council, and it already covers a fairly massive area - as does Lake Macquarie council. If I thought this was anything more than a political bun fight, it might be worth considering. What I think would be more effective is to make the council areas bigger, and get rid of State government!

Cheers,
Inertia.

 

Inertia.. Yes Strathfield council was doggy few years ago but I think they have cleaned up a little now.
They seem to be doing lot of improvements lately.

 

Money talks. We've all seen how much money that councillor at Auburn has to throw around... don't think he's broke just yet.

 

I think that there are positives in the reduction of back end costs and duplication of services. I think the challenge with amalgamation is that by making large council areas the community feeling and provision of community services will struggle - it will be more difficult to know what the needs are of the community and to meet those needs.

 

@Scott No Mates
If the NSW Government was serious about this, they would also look at reallocating boundaries and reducing the number of councillors based on population.

Especially when the state is looking at pushing forward government of state matters onto local councils making them responsible for more than rates and looking after their areas.