Canterbury and Bankstown Councils merged in NSW Local Government overhaul
BANKSTOWN and Canterbury will merge into one council of more than 339,000 ratepayers as part of a sweeping local government overhaul in NSW.
BANKSTOWN and Canterbury will merge into one council of more than 339,000 ratepayers as part of a sweeping local government overhaul in NSW.
The controversial plan will see the number of Sydney councils dwindle from 43 to 25.
It comes after Bankstown was deemed “fit” to stand alone by the State Government’s Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) in October.
Bankstown Mayor Khal Asfour said the decision “made a mockery” of the State Government’s own process.
“We were the only inner Sydney metropolitan council that met all the criteria set by the NSW Government but it means nothing now following today’s decision,” he said.
“This process has clearly been a smoke screen for what the NSW Government has always intended to do — to reduce the number of councils across the state and force them to amalgamate, including those like Bankstown which are doing well.”
Conversely, Canterbury was crossed off as “unfit” after failing a contentious scale and capacity benchmark.
In September Canterbury Council backtracked on a stand-alone position and passed a resolution to open merger talks with Bankstown.
Canterbury general manager Jim Montague said he was “reasonably sanguine” about the merger.
“We asked for the merger between Canterbury and Bankstown. That’s what they delivered,” Mr Montague said.
He said it would be “business as usual” as the council digested details of the government’s plans.
However, Mr Montague said he found the merger between Hurstville and Kogarah “curious” as it would form a council similar to the present size of Canterbury.
“What puzzles me a little bit is why they would merge those two,” he said.
The merge would net $86 million in savings over 20 years, according to IPART’s report.
The NSW Local Government Department will apply to boundaries commission to make the changes.
This means under current laws public hearings have to take place.
Amalgamations are scheduled to go ahead in May 2016, with councils to be placed into a period of administration between May 2016 and March 2017.
Local government elections will be pushed back from September 2016 to March 2017.
The State Government will also seek changes to the Local Government Act, including pay reviews for mayors and councillors.
Each merged metropolitan entity will receive $10 million in State Government funding while regional entities will receive $5 million.
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