Committee wants council reinstatement or election
A Labor Central Coast Local Government Committee has called for reinstatement of the elected council or a date for a Central Coast Council election.
Committee president Ms Vicki Scott, a former Gosford councillor, said: "It has been over 12 months since our elected Councillors were suspended and we are still waiting for this Liberal-National State Government to let us know whether our councillors will be returned or when we will be allowed to have an election.
"The not-so public inquiry has now finished but we have been given no timeline for when the commissioner will report to the Minister for Local Government or when the government will reveal or take action on the findings of Commissioner McCulloch's report."
"The 100 submissions and public evidence given make it clear that the problems within Council were largely the responsibility of the staff and were, in fact, out of the control of the elected councillors or, worse, hidden from them."
Ms Scott said a just outcome would be for our elected councillors to be restored with additional assistance from the NSW Government to complete the amalgamation process.
"But I doubt very much that will happen," said Ms Scott.
"The Central Coast Local Government Committee has no faith that the Minister for Local Government will acknowledge that its forced amalgamation of Wyong and Gosford Council has been an abject failure that the NSW Government should put right.
"That is why we are calling for a Legislative Council inquiry into the 2016 amalgamations so that this whole disturbing and expensive debacle can be examined and put right" Ms Scott said.
"Meanwhile, residents should be writing to their state local members and the Minister for Local Government, calling for the reinstatement of our elected council or, at the very least, a firm date for the next local government election."
SOURCE:
Media release, 10 Nov 2021
Vicki Scott, CC Local Government Committee