Wollongong, Shellharbour and Kiama councils could lose control of road networks, major projects, libraries and waste management under new recommendations from the Independent Local Government Review Panel.
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In its Future Directions for NSW Local Government report released yesterday, the panel proposed the three councils become part of a larger Illawarra County Council, which would assume control of ‘‘a broad range of strategic functions’’ in the region.
Each council would otherwise maintain their separate identities and the panel was at pains to point out there would be no forced amalgamation in the Illawarra.
However, it did not rule out a possible Wollongong-Shellharbour merger in the future.
Should amalgamation become necessary, the panel recommended Kiama join Shoalhaven council instead of its northern neighbours.
The panel has been reviewing NSW’s ailing local government sector since last July, aiming to improve the financial stability and future prospects of the state’s 152 councils.
The report suggests the number of NSW councils should be reduced to fewer than 100 through a process of voluntary amalgamation.
Illawarra councils have been spared merger recommendations at this stage thanks to their relative financial stability and ‘‘Kiama’s distinctive rural and coastal setting and ‘country town’ character compared to Wollongong and Shellharbour’’.
Instead, a new Illawarra County Council would become one of 20 such bodies established outside the Sydney metropolitan area.
‘‘The [Illawarra] councils ...have co-operated for many years through what is now the Southern Councils Group, although shared services activity is very limited,’’ the report said.
‘‘The panel considers that closer collaboration through a county council arrangement should enable a sufficient response to regional challenges for some time to come.’’
The new county council would undertake a ‘‘broad range of strategic functions’’ to support their member councils and strengthen the system of local government.
These could include regional and sub-regional planning, advocacy and inter-governmental relations, road network planning and major projects, waste and environmental management, libraries and other high-level corporate services. The panel insisted the county councils would not become ‘‘a fourth tier of government’’ or lead to an additional set of bureaucracies in NSW.
‘‘Local councils more or less as we know them today would remain the core of the system: they would own and resource the county councils in the same way many do now,’’ the report said.
Also under the plan, Wollongong has been earmarked as one of the 15 major regional centres which would play a leadership role and offer technical support to the other councils in their county.
The report will be on public exhibition until June 28.
NSW Local Government Minister Don Page has urged residents to have their say at www.localgovernmentreview.nsw.gov.au.
WHAT THE MAYORS SAID
Wollongong Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery
• "I think the Kiama, Shellharbour and Wollongong councils can work together effectively as a county council. Together we form an Illawarra entity, and...the county councils would be responsible for regional planning which is what we need to do."
• "There’s a lot of collaboration happening already through our Southern Councils Group, but that could be strengthened and increased – we can do better as a region and basically the county council is just putting on a label of what we already want to do."
Shellharbour Mayor Marianne Saliba
• "I see this as amalgamation by stealth, and I am very concerned that eventually our councils will become obsolete and be phased out."
• "If this is not another tier of government, what is the purpose of it, and once you take the guts out of local councils what will our purpose be?"
• "We already do what they want to achieve by setting up the county council...[and] Shellharbour, Kiama and Wollongong work very co-operatively now, we share a lot of resources and services."
• "I think the people of Shellharbour deserve autonomy because each of our areas are unique and we need to maintain that."
Kiama Mayor Brian Petschler
• "I think the county council idea builds on our own ideas that there are a number of things that we could work together on in the Illawarra."
• "Our point all along in Kiama has been that we have a different character to our neighbours and the review panel have indicated that they understand that...so I think the report will allow us to sustain our local character and maintain autonomy over the large majority of the things we do."
