Since 2003 the State Government has played arbiter to an ongoing feud between the Local Government Association of NSW (LGA) and the Sydney Business Chamber (SBC) over forced local council amalgamations – a position that is becoming untenable.
Last week the SBC released the results of a clumsy poll conducted among 300 online respondents, asking them a variety of questions about their satisfaction with a variety of council services and the number of Sydney councils. A bare majority of respondents believed there are too many Sydney councils, giving the SBC their pretext to publish the feeble results.
The SBC represents a variety of stakeholder groups with a vested interest in establishing a smaller number of super-councils in Sydney, not the least of which is the potential for a streamlined planning process. It’s any property developer’s fantasy to have councillors representing one suburb make planning decisions about the future of another.
Another gawky McDonald’s on King Street may not be too distant a prospect.
Local Governments – particularly those in the inner west and inner city – help to unify, define and protect the identity of the community that they represent. It takes only a minute to visit Marrickville, Redfern or any other Council’s website to see the level of investment they have in developing and improving their communities in a way that is commensurate with and protects their identity.
The LGA recognises in its response to the online poll that local governments have difficulties in delivering the expanding list of services that come under their mandate. For the last eight years the State Government along with the LGA has recognised this is an issue with adequate funding and not performance, and has no connection with their size or number.
The new Local Government Minister has been surprisingly quiet on the issue since after the release of last week’s poll.
Both the LGA and the SBC are powerful lobby groups within the NSW political sphere; however this is no longer an excuse for the State Government to continue its policy of appeasement.
If they are to protect the interests of inner city communities the new Local Government Minister and the Department responsible must dismiss the falsehoods surrounding forced amalgamations, increase funding to meet growing service demand, and in doing so keep the ‘local’ in local government.
By Ryan Gleeson
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