City of Canada Bay will be holding an extraordinary Council meeting on Wednesday, 23 December at 6pm to review the implications of the NSW State Government’s merger proposal that was released today.
In the State Government’s findings, City of Canada Bay’s proposal for Fit for the Future had been rejected.
“It is outrageous that we today find out our proposal for Fit for the Future to be rejected without any explanation; contrary to previous advice from State Government,” Mayor Angelo Tsirekas said.
“We have shown leadership throughout this process and have continued to act in the best long-term interest of our community by submitting our merger proposal. This proposal was assessed by IPART as being fit; however it has now been discarded and makes a mockery of the entire process.”
Mayor Angelo Tsirekas says on 16 June, Council resolved to reserve the right to review its decision to merge. This decision was made ‘conditional upon the State Government implementing its Fit for the Future program in an equitable, fair and consistent manner across the Sydney Metropolitan Councils.’
“Today’s announcement has shown the State Government has changed the goal posts and done a complete back flip on its own assessment criteria. Today the State Government have said the minimum population is now150,000 and despite previous advice that Council areas would not be carved up, this has now changed with a number of Council areas proposed to be split,” he said.
“We are disappointed and perplexed that our proposal, deemed ‘fit’ by IPART, has not been accepted by the State Government and we are interested to hear their rationale.”
The extraordinary Council meeting has been called for Wednesday, 23 December, by which time we hope to have further information and discuss ways in which to move forward, in the best long-term interest of our community.