Mayor responds to Clarence Valley's labelling of 'not fit'

CLARENCE Valley Council seems likely to be able to carry on alone despite being given an ‘unfit’ rating in the Fit For The Future report.

Clarence Valley is one of four North Coast councils deemed unfit for the future.

UPDATE 12.30: Clarence Valley mayor Richie Williamson said the ruling by IPART that the Clarence Valley Council is not fit for the future was unsurprising. 

"It was no secret," Mr Williamson said. "In our submission we indeed said we didn't meet some of the benchmarks. 

"We have told the community we don't fit the benchmarks. To be truthful there are no great surprises in their rating." 

"We do meet their benchmarks for efficiency, we do meet their benchmarks for scale and capacity. Where we did fail was financial sustainability."

Cr Williamson said that the council was now in the process of finding ways to become financially sustainable for the long term future. 

"Council is now going through the process of making some decisions on how we become sustainable for the long term that will in turn make us fit for the future," he said. 

"We have been consulting with the community for a few months now on a special rate variation - that is just one of the ways that council can be sustainable. But a special rate variation on its own will not fix the problem." 

Mayor Williamson said community consultations were ongoing while council found ways to streamline operations to make them more financially sustainable. 

EARLIER: CLARENCE Valley Council seems likely to be able to carry on alone despite being given an 'unfit' rating in the Fit For The Future report.

The council was one of four North Coast councils that failed to reach the bar set in the IPART report to the State Government.

Only 57 of the State's 152 councils were found fit, including Lismore, Richmond Valley, Ballina, Coffs Harbour and Nambucca.

Tweed, Kyogle and Bellingen were the others on the North Coast found to be unfit.

Councils have been given 30 days to respond to the report and to put forward merger plans.

"This is a final opportunity to do the right thing for the future of their communities, which in many cases may include merging with neighbouring councils," said Premier Mike Baird.

Clarence Valley probably won't have to go down the merger path, however, with the report stating, "Our analysis has not identified evidence for a better alternative to the council's proposal to stand alone."

It stated the council's proposal was consistent with the Independent Local Government Review Panel's option for it to stand alone.

"We note Clarence Valley has a weak financial position and faces challenges in meeting current and future infrastructure requirements."

Mayor Richie Williamson and council general manager Scott Greensill were unavailable to comment on the report before going into yesterday's council meeting at Maclean.

Lismore Mayor Jenny Dowell was shocked to learn Clarence Valley Council failed to cut the mustard in the IPART review.

"Clarence was one that merged 11 years ago, bringing five councils into one," she said.

"It's a bit of an indictment when this is supposed to be about efficiency and that council is not deemed fit after going through all that pain."

Richmond Valley Mayor Ernie Bennett said he was open to conversation but would not make any promises about an amalgamation.

"We've done the hard yards and got there," he said.

"Now we want to keep our eye on the ball and make sure we stay there.

"But that won't preclude us from having discussions with other councils who need to talk."

Coffs Harbour to the south, which met the IPART criteria, may also be investigated for a boundary change.

"Clarence has worked really hard to try be fit for the future - so has Bellingen," Coffs Mayor Denise Knight said.

"Would it make us turn our back on our neighbours? I don't think so.

"That's just not the flavour of Coffs Harbour.

"We've always worked with our neighbouring councils If there's a forced amalgamation, we will just have to accept it."

-APN NEWSDESK

Originally published as Mayor responds to Clarence Valley's labelling of 'not fit'