BOMBALA Council Mayor, Bob Stewart and General Manager, Ngaire McCrindle attended the Local Government NSW Annual Conference in Coffs Harbour last week.
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With the Bombala Council being earmarked for amalgamation under the state government’s ‘Fit for the Future’ plan, the issue of council mergers was the major focus of our local representatives.
And it was the leading issue for most small councils in attendance.
President of Local Government NSW (LGNSW), Cr Keith Rhoades AFSM said councils questioned whether the NSW Government will stand by its policy of ‘no forced amalgamations’ if councils do not fall into line with the Fit for the Future reform package.
“What councils really want to know is whether the Government intends to change its ‘no forced amalgamation’ policy if councils aren’t willing to merge or if their proposals are rejected,” he said.
“The Minister for Local Government, the Hon Paul Toole MP, addressed the Conference and while he gave an overview of the Fit for the Future package and the resources soon to be released to help councils prepare their reform proposals, there was no assurance that councils would not eventually be forced to merge.”
Mayor Bob Stewart was equally concerned and said that while he understood that the current policy may be for no forced amalgamations, there were no assurances on the issue following the March 2015 election.
“We still have the opportunity to respond to the proposal for amalgamation in our region up until June,” Cr Stewart said.
“And while council is working very hard on that, we really need a firmer position of no forced amalgamations from the government coming into the March election, even if councils do not meet the ‘Fit for the Future’ criteria.”
Cr Stewart said he still wants the government to prove that the Bombala local government area and its ratepayers would be better off if merging with Cooma-Monaro and Snowy River shires as proposed.
Cr Stewart is also calling for an independent audit to be carried out to show if the Bombala Council does indeed have serious inefficiencies that would be solved by amalgamation with its neighbours.
“I personally have a lot of concerns about the ‘Fit for the Future’ model and my greatest fear is that a lot of small councils are not going to have much choice in the matter,” he said.