Independent councillor Ted Cassidy has proposed merging Haberfield, the City of Canada Bay and Leichhardt councils

Independent Ashfield councillor Ted Cassidy may be late coming to the conversation, but he says people need to start thinking outside the box, and that is what he has done with his submission to the Local Government Boundaries Delegate.

Inner West Courier - Councillor Ted Cassidy is pictured beside Canada Bay off Maliyawul Street, Leichhardt NSW Australia. Photographs to go with a story about council mergers.

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Independent Ashfield councillor Ted Cassidy may be late coming to the conversation, but he says people need to start thinking outside the box, and that is what he has done with his submission to the Local Government Boundaries Delegate.

Cr Cassidy said if council mergers will go ahead there is a more practical solution for rezoning the inner west.

He thinks he has the solution, with what he has called The Bays City Council.

Bounded by Parramatta River on one side and from the formidable Parramatta Rd on the other, he suggests amalgamating Leichhardt, Canada Bay and the Ashfield suburb of Haberfield.

“My submission is that we throw aside the current proposals and look at a more natural merger,” he said.

Cassidy says the merge would use Parramatta River and Parramatta Rd as boundaries.

“No one who lives in the inner west crosses Parramatta Rd if they don’t have to. We should be using that to define boundaries.

“The proposed amalgamation of all of Ashfield municipality with Leichhardt and Marrickville councils does not take into account the natural and engineered geographical boundaries.

“It’s a more appropriate amalgamation to incorporate all of Haberfield north of Parramatta Rd, with all of Leichhardt council areas, together with Canada Bay Council, which have current municipal boundaries north of Parramatta Rd.

“There is also a community of identity and interests of residents in this area, and Haberfield is a nationally identified heritage conservation area with a distinct population similar to Canada Bay and Leichhardt.

City of Canada Bay Mayor Angelo Tsirekas declined to comment on Cr Cassidy’s submission, saying simply that he, and his councillors, would be focusing on the amalgamations already proposed and on the table.

“We’ve not been formally approached by Ashfield Council, and we are focusing on the State Government’s merger proposal for the City of Canada Bay, Burwood and Strathfield,” Cr Tsirekas said.

Leichhardt mayor Darcy Byrne said he had approached City of Canada Bay and Ashfield with a similar idea.

“We did try to get a preference expressed some months ago, but City of Canada Bay proceeded with its proposal with Burwood and Auburn, and Ashfield were not interested,” he said.