Lower North Shore Councils Meet

North Sydney Council Council meeting agenda for the 3rd June includes a report on a meeting of Mayors and General Managers from the five lower north shore councils.

Agenda  (333KB)

"The meeting of Mayors and General Managers of the five lower north Shore
Councils was held at North Sydney Council on 29 May 2013. At the meeting,
there was a wide-ranging discussion about all aspects of the Future Directions
document. At the end of the meeting, the five Mayors agreed on a number of
points as follows:

 We reject the Sansom report with respect to amalgamations as not providing evidence or a case for improving Council services and finances.
 We reaffirm our support for the state government’s position that there should be no forced amalgamations.
 We support regional organizations of councils as the instrument of shared services.
 We support in principle the merger of NSROC and SHOROC.
 That the GMs be asked to investigate (a) a structure that would make the ROC more effective and ( b) to identify further shared services possibilities."

It is interesting that the meeting rejected  the Samson report (ILGRP)  because it had not provided evidence or case for improving Council services and finances.  This is fair comment and most commentators say that amalgamations are not about improving services or finances.  The principle reason for the ILGRP recommending amalgamations is to

"Create high capacity councils that can better represent and serve their local communities on metropolitan issues, and be true partners of State and federal agencies."

 The meeting, or its formal outcome, appears to have avoided the main issue.

Good news about merging NSROC and SHOROC. Mosman's big picture planning issues, transport, health, education, jobs (metropolitan issues) are closely aligned to North Sydney and Willoughby and less so the Northern Beaches councils.