Shellharbour mayor Marianne Saliba has hit back at suggestion her council’s ongoing court battle against a merger with Wollongong has impeded its operations.
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The Mercury revealed on Thursday Shellharbour City Council’s appeal against a NSW Land and Environment Court decision to throw out its earlier legal challenge would not be heard until November 23.
The appeal will be dealt with in the NSW Court of Appeal, with a hearing date to be set when both parties agree to proceed.
It is understood a February or March hearing is likely, due to the Christmas-New Year holiday period. The drawn-out process means Wollongong and Shellharbour residents will be left in council merger limbo until well into the new year.
Wollongong lord mayor Gordon Bradbery told the Mercury earlier this week the ongoing uncertainty had left his council’s operations almost at a standstill.
“We need a continual process of putting new things in train and everything is on hold,” Cr Bradbery said on Wednesday.
“We’re just in a maintenance mode and as far as planning for the future we’ve got some real big limitations.”
However, Cr Saliba hit out at any suggestion Shellharbour was in a similar position, with a council-issued media release stating “the community can rest assured that the operations of council have not been impeded by a proposal to merge it with Wollongong City Council”.
“Under the mandate of the Office of Local Government we continue to provide services, plan for the future and implement strategies during the proposed merger period,” Cr Saliba said.
“We are successfully conducting business and supporting our community in all areas of council,” she said.
“Not only that, we are continuing with the construction of major projects, such as the Shell Cove boat harbour, Shellharbour Civic Centre and Dunmore Resource Recovery redevelopment.”
Meanwhile, the Land and Environment Court on Friday dismissed Oberon, Cabonne and Gundagai councils’ cases against the NSW government’s planned amalgamations.
Oberon Council is now set to be merged with Bathurst Regional Council, Cabonne Council with Blayney and Orange City councils, and Gundagai Shire Council with Cootamundra Shire Council.
The judgment stated each applicant had “not established any of the grounds of challenge” and all were ordered to pay the government’s legal costs.