Council opposes forced amalgamation

Gosford Council has unanimously agreed to write to the Minister for Local Government Mr Don Page and thank him for his recent statement reaffirming the State Government's policy of no forced local government amalgamations.

Greens Cr Hillary Morris put forward a Notice of Motion at the ordinary Council meeting of Tuesday, March 26, which expressed her concern at Mr Page's previous statement that he would take the Better Stronger Local Government Case for Sustainable Change document to cabinet for approval despite the State Government promising before the 2011 election that there would be no forced amalgamations.

Mr Page, however, reaffirmed the Liberals and Nationals policy of no forced amalgamations on Thursday, March 21, in the wake of "numerous erroneous claims and unwarranted concerns that the Government was planning forced amalgamations".

Ms Morris spoke to the meeting and said any forced amalgamation was "really doomed to fail on a number of fronts".

"We already work quite collaboratively with Wyong Council and have a number of joint ventures," said Ms Morris.

Cr Craig Doyle expanded on Ms Morris's sentiments and said Gosford Council currently had 96 joint ventures with Wyong Council.

"Obviously we have learnt quite a lot from pervious forced council amalgamations that are quite geographically large, as is the case with Gosford and Wyong.

"If we can work better together, that's regionalisation and that's why we must not have forced council amalgamation," said Cr Doyle.

Kaitlin Watts, 26 Mar 2013

Gosford Council Agenda NM.1, 26 Mar 2013

Media Release, 21 Mar 2013

Johnathon Porter, Office of Don Page MP