Chamber welcomes council proclamation

Peninsula Chamber of Commerce president Mr Matthew Wales has declared the 12 May proclamation dissolving Gosford Council and creating the new Central Coast Council a great one for the Peninsula.

"I think firstly it has been a bit of a surprise with the proclamation coming out...it wasn't expected for a few weeks yet but from our perspective that is a good thing because it provides now some clear certainty for this greater council moving forward," Mr Wales said.

"We are particularly pleased about the appointment of Mr Ian Reynolds as the administrator because he has a comprehensive planning and management background.

"Mr Reynolds has extensive experience right across a number of local government areas, and that will be particularly important as this new council emerges because he has the particular expertise to sort out the management and planning implications."

Mr Wales said the Chamber was also pleased that the Central Coast Council would have five wards.

"That is good for the Peninsula because it means we will get a greater opportunity to get fairer representation.

"In the past the Peninsula has been totally unrepresented or inadequately represented.

"The fact is that we now have the opportunity to have three councillors for the Peninsula and the wider population area included in the Gosford West Ward.

"At the moment we have no representation so a ward system ensures we get that representation consistently over subsequent local government elections.

"It has been a constant source of aggravation over the years that this area has been unrepresented.

"The other encouraging factor of this proclamation is that the next local government election has been pushed out to September 2017.

"It will give the administrator and the interim general manager adequate time to pull this organisation together rather than it being a rushed job that we previously expected to be done in under 12 months.

"It also brings it in line with the September elections that we are all used to.

"From the business community's point of view it is vitally important that the administrator and his team make sure that this organisation is lean and efficient because we are all expecting big things out of the amalgamation.

"What the business community will want to do fairly quickly is put our own projects forward that we want the new organisation to consider and ratchet up their priority list because it has been a long held belief that that old Gosford Council, which doesn't exist any longer, has always put the Peninsula at the bottom of the list.

"If you talk to any Peninsula-ite, they all hold that view."

Interview, 12 May 2016

Matthew Wales, Peninsula Chamber of Commerce

Reporter: Jackie Pearson