What this north shore mayor really thinks of his colleagues

The Liberal mayor of Lane Cove has blasted three colleagues as “people who hate the world when they wake up” after they refused to endorse a council budget that allocated an additional $6 million towards a controversial new sports centre.

Scott Bennison, mayor of the lower north shore council since September last year, said on Thursday he had never before “witnessed a situation where councillors refused to adopt the budget”.

An artist’s impression of the Lane Cove Sport and Recreation Centre.Credit: Lane Cove Council

The budget and spending plan was passed, but independent Merri Southwood, Labor-turned-independent Kathy Bryla, and Greens councillor Rochelle Flood all insisted they voted against the plan in the June meeting because they held genuine concerns about an unexplained $6 million increase to the council’s new Sport and Recreation Centre, which has been hotly debated among locals.

That project was initially budgeted to cost $75 million, and Southwood said any further costs had to be approved by the council.

“We felt that the original $75 million budget was approved. Our attitude was if it was intended to take it over budget by $6 million, that decision should come back to a meeting of council to understand why the budget had blown out,” she said.

Independent councillor Merri Southwood; (inset) Lane Cove Mayor Scott Bennison.Credit: Edwina Pickles

When contacted on Friday, Bennison described the councillors who voted against the budget as “a few angry people who hate the world when they wake up, and they just want to … vote against the budget”.

He said it was “very sad” that they had asked more than 150 questions about the yearly budget and long-term spending plan in the fortnight leading up to the vote, saying their actions had overwhelmed council staff.

“How much more information do you need to make a decision? It’s very sad.”

Lane Cove Council – one of the most complained about in Sydney – in January banned councillors from communicating with staff.

“I stepped up and said, ‘Right, I’m restricting emails to five a week [per councillor], because our [council staff] cannot do their job’,” Bennison said. “It’s like, sure you have a right to information. But how much? How much information do you need to be satisfied to make a decision?”

But Southwood said the questions had to be asked via email because there was less than one briefing meeting dedicated to explaining the spending plan to councillors.

“We have a responsibility to be fully informed before we make a decision, and the fact that we had insufficient information to prepare a budget was quite a legitimate use of our vote.”

All three councillors also denied the allegations that they wake up in the morning and hate the world.

“I wake up in the morning and love the world,” Southwood said. “Just sometimes I struggle with [lack of] transparency.”

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