(Revised 19 January 2017)
Attention Residents of Strathfield, Burwood and City of Canada Bay Local Government Areas:
The State Government continues to pursue its intention to merge Strathfield, Burwood and City of Canada Bay councils. This is despite 72% of submitters to the February 2016 inquiry opposing the amalgamation. This percentage is consistent with various surveys in the proposed amalgamated areas.
The proposed amalgamation will see the dissolution of all three councils. As evidenced in the creation of the Inner West Council; the former Ashfield, Leichhardt and Marrickville councils were dissolved which involved the sacking of all Councillors and the appointment of an unelected Administrator with control over the new council entity until the next council election.
Strathfield Council fought the NSW Government in the Land and Environment Court and was successful on the grounds that the Delegate “failed to provide a report that complies with the mandated statutory requirements” (1), yet the 'Fit for the Future' process continues with the Delegate given an opportunity to rewrite his report (2) with the aim to meet his obligations under the Act this time. I’m sure many of our HSC students would like the same opportunity.
The view of the Boundaries Commission is that the delegate did not adequately consider the issues regarding Financial Factors (3).
Yet again, Strathfield Council has been set a tight deadline to respond to the process. The second submission period for the proposal to amalgamate, started just before Christmas and ends 20 January 2017 (NB: since publication of this message this date has been amended to 24 February 2017).
Given that the government has had the Delegate’s report since September, the timing of this deadline suggests that the government believes residents are most likely to carefully consider this report and write submissions over the holiday season!
Council and residents have already made many comprehensive submissions against these merger proposals to Government inquiries – these appear to have been ignored. The Delegate does not refer to any of the more than 200 resident submissions in his latest report.
Further to this, Dr Joseph Drew and Professor Brian Dollery, experts in Local Government, have described the calculations by IPART and KPMG used by the government to justify these amalgamations as “fatally flawed” (4).
IT IS NOT TO LATE TO HAVE YOUR SAY
Council requests your comments by 15th January 2017 (i.e. this Sunday) (NB: since publication of this message this date has been amended to 17 February 2017) on the revised delegates report.
Before the February 2016 inquiry, members of the public were invited to comment only on those factors which most affected them. In this report, the delegate makes reference to how few people commented on numerous factors. Please be sure to comment on all factors. They are as follows:
- Financial implications e.g. Strathfield Council spends money in the interests of the community maintaining the local government area.
- Community of interest and geographic cohesion e.g. Strathfield has regulations regarding car ports which differ from those of Burwood.
- Historical and traditional values e.g. All three councils have evolved differently to have different areas, such as red-brick residences in Hedges Avenue and Cave Road.
- Attitudes of residents and ratepayers e.g. In a time where population influx is high, amalgamation of any Sydney council is a blow to democracy.
- Elected representation e.g. Dilution of representation will make it harder for smaller parties and independents to run candidates, resulting in less choice for voters.
- Service delivery and facilities e.g. There are nuanced differences between all three local government areas with respect to service delivery and facilities like street signs and tree cover.
- Employment impacts on staff e.g. As is tradition, money stands to be lost outside of the amalgam with the merger making senior roles challenging.
- Wards e.g. Why should the decision as to whether to have wards, affect the decision to amalgamate?
- Opinions of diverse communities.
Submissions of any size are welcome.
To quote from page 5 of the Delegate's report, "The number of submissions received [205] represents a small proportion of the total population of the areas included in the proposal (0.2%, including the 194 signatures on a petition, of a total population of 163,014) indicating a relatively low level of response from the community. This suggests that the concerns raised cannot be assumed to be held by the majority of affected residents, who did not choose to respond. Most of the submissions expressed a negative sentiment towards the proposal (72%), and a smaller proportion expressed a positive or neutral sentiment (19% and 9% respectively)."
View the revised report here.
To make your submission, please email submissions@strathfield.nsw.gov.au by Sunday 15 January 2017 (NB: since publication of this message this date has been amended to 17 February 2017).
For more information, click here.
Cr Andrew Soulos, Mayor of Strathfield
References:
(1) Land & Environment Court Matter 158221 of 2016, Principal Judgment
(2) Examination of the Proposal to merge Burwood Council, City of Canada Bay Council and Strathfield Municipal Council
https://dpcsc-ss.s3.amazonaws.com/Uploads/1482211006/Strathfield.pdf
(3) Summary of Local Government Boundaries Commission comments
(4) Link to interview with Dr Joseph Drew
https://coastcommunitynews.com.au/2015/11/forced-amalgamation-based-on-flawed-methodology-academic/
Link to Abstract of paper by Dr Drew and Prof Dollery
“Hired guns: Local government mergers in New South Wales and the KPMG modelling report” https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/handle/10453/5161