Warringah Council May Withdraw Cooperation From SHOROC

According to the Manly Daily, Mayor Michael Regan has flagged it will look at working with pro-merger councils The Hills and Hornsby to achieve discounts for services like waste management.

He said if Manly, Pittwater and Mosman were not interested in local government reform, Warringah could get bigger discounts by partnering with other bigger councils.

Yesterday, Hornsby Mayor Steve Russell said his council had also asked for a report on whether to continue membership with its Northern Sydney ROC.

"A lot of smaller councils are anti-amalgamation, but most want shared services," Cr Russell said.

read the full story
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/northern-beaches/large-councils-to-work-together-as-smaller-councils-reject-amalgamation-options/story-fngr8hax-1226723793808

Warringah At Odds With Manly and Pittwater Councils

Manly and Pittwater Councils have release a report by Professor Brian Dollery from the University of New England rebutting Warringah Council's 2011 Local Government Structural Change report, which recommended amalgamating the three Northern Beaches local councils and an even wider merger with Ku-ring-gai, Hornsby and Mosman Councils.

According to Manly Council website, their Dollery report found that the proposed model of a northern beaches council, advocated by Warringah Council, was not viable for several key reasons.

• There is no 'community of interest' between Manly, Warringah and Pittwater Councils considered essential for amalgamation to occur successfully
• Local boards are both expensive and inappropriate for NSW
• Amalgamation options proposed do not improve financial sustainability and in the short-term increase costs to ratepayers substantially
• No economies of scale are present in the amalgamation options proposed by Warringah Council.

Professor Brian Dollery Report 'AN ASSESSMENT OF SGS REPORT LOCAL GOVERNMENT STRUCTURAL CHANGE OPTIONS ANALYSIS' (1.28 MB) In 2011 Warringah Council commissioned a discussion paper that made a strong argument for council amalgamation and shared services. The paper by internationally-recognised expert in local government reform, Peter McKinlay,  recommended several ways that local councils can share resources to improve services and be able to better deal with the complex issues now facing local government. The paper was peer-reviewed by the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government.