BY CHRISTOPHER HARRIS
The findings of the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal’s investigation into the viability of NSW local councils have been slammed by councils across Sydney.
Marrickville Council is seeking “urgent legal advice” after it was found to be too small in the tribunal’s investigation.
Marrickville Greens Councillor Sylvie Ellsmore moved the motion to seek legal advice in a council meeting on Tuesday, October 20.
“We will explore every avenue to protect our strong council and the community services it provides,” she said.
“The IPART report released yesterday was no surprise. It found two thirds of Sydney councils ‘unfit’ – not because they don’t have strong finances, but because they are smaller than the NSW Government wants.”
The report found that Marrickville council was ‘fit’, but failed on the ‘scale and capacity’ category.
“Under the rigged criteria, Marrickville Council could have a billion dollars in the bank and we would still have been found ‘unfit’, because we’d still be too small in the government’s eyes,” Clr Ellsmore told the council at Tuesday’s meeting.
On Wednesday, October 28, Leichhardt’s mayor Darcy Byrne revealed that the council was “considering” which neighbouring councils it may merge with.
“Council has received legal advice that, although it may be subject to challenge, the State has the legal power to suspend Council and appoint an administrator.
The council was found fit on all counts except for the scale and capacity benchmark. Greens Councillor Daniel Kogey told City Hub last week that The Greens were opposed to any amalgamations.
“ That state government wants to get rid of Leichhardt Council because we fight for sustainable development and open space over 16,000 apartments in the Bays Precinct,
quality public transport and bike paths rather than the WestConnex, community participation in decision making rather than unaccountable mega corporate councils.”
Local councils now have 30 days to respond to the findings of the report.
Councils who submit merger proposals to the Department of Premier and Cabinet before November 18 will be given $10 million to cover costs of merging.
A bonus $15 million will be given to these councils for local facilities.
It is unclear whether the councils will be forced to merge, and if they are, whether this funding will also be given to the forced councils.
A statement released by Leichhardt Council noted that the “state has not clearly stated what it will do with unfit councils that don’t agree to a merger”.
The City of Sydney also failed to be “fit for the future”, but was judged in the ‘Global City’ category requiring 600,000 ratepayers, a different category to other councils.
City of Sydney Labor Councillor Linda Scott called the decision about the required size “arbitrary”.
“The City of Sydney has been found capable of being fit for the future against the criteria in the IPART report, including financial criteria. The only reason why the government is claiming otherwise is that the City does not meet the government’s own arbitrary figure for size,” Clr Scott said.
One council appeared happy with the report, as IPART deemed the Randwick-Waverley merger as ‘fit’.
Randwick Mayor Noel D’Souza said it was a good decision.
“This is great news for our residents, ratepayers, staff and combined local communities, and I am pleased to see all our hard work and leadership has paid off,” Clr D’Souza said.
“We listened to our community, who clearly told us earlier this year that they value our eastern beaches identity and strongly oppose becoming part of a global city council with the City of Sydney, as originally proposed by the Independent Local Government Review Panel.”
