What do we want? - An informed view! - When do we want it? - Now!

This blog was started as a response to the lack of fair minded analysis and discussion here in Mosman.  Mosman Council has a responsibility to properly inform its citizens about decisions. Instead it took taken preemptive action by holding a referendum 9 months ago with very little background information and more recently activating a Council sponsored 'Independent Mosman' committee to promulgate a single minded view to residents.

So far we have not  been given a fair analysis of the ILGRP report nor had an opportunity to consider our options.

Other Councils have taken a better approach. In 2011 Warringah Council commissioned a discussion paper looking at council amalgamation and shared services. Community forums were then held. There is more on this example in the Warringah Leadership tab.

Ryde Council has strong anti public amalgamation position. However to their credit, Ryde Council recently ran a workshop on the proposed amalgamation to provide residents with an insight into how the proposed amalgamation could affect the Ryde Local Government Area and to capture the community's views and comments. They have set up some information web pages making available the workshop presentation and the results from the live voting conducted on the day.
Local Government Reform - Community Workshop 3 June 2013 (PDF 777 KB)
Amalgamations Workshop - Live Voting Results 3 June 2013 (PDF 227 KB)
The results will confirm the Council position and will be included in their next submission to the review.

My Take on the Ryde Workshop results.

The exercise confirms my point of view that residents deserve the opportunity to give an informed opinion. 140 residents attended the workshop, which is a good turn out.  This is a selection of results.

On the question of how supportive participants were of City of Ryde being amalgamated with other nearby Councils more than 20% said they would like more information in order to form a view, 22% indicated a level of support for amalgamations and 58% opposed.

When presented with options, the proposal for City of Ryde to merge with Parramatta, Auburn and Holroyd Councils was the least preferred option with just 1% of the vote. The most preferred option was to merge with Willoughby, Lane Cove, and Hunters Hill Councils (47%), followed by opposing amalgamations (27%). 12% said they needed more information in order to form a view.

Clearly the citizens of Ryde are looking East not West if they have to amalgamate. Maybe an arranged marriage might be palatable if you can choose your partner, with opposition to amalgamation dropping to 27%.  It is good to see 20% want more information in order to form a view, understandable as the ILGRP has not provided detail amalgamations plans just general principles as part of its consultation process.

So congratulations to Ryde Council for putting information on their website, preparing a briefing, holding the workshop and reporting the results.  A fair and transparent process.

                                                                        *****

Note:  The final report from the ILGRP will be given to the NSW Government in September. The draft contains a wide range of potential reforms for local government. Amalgamation options are less than 25% of the issues discussed. If amalgamations are proposed by the Government, under current laws, there must be a further process of reviews and public consultations based upon actual proposals.  Then the Government has the power to change council boundaries, but has so far made a commitment not to undertake forced amalgamations. (But there may be some carrots and sticks.)