City of Canada Bay Mayor Angelo Tsirekas says yesterday’s announcement by the Minister for Local Government, Mr Don Page, that there would no forced council amalgamations in NSW was positive news for the community.
“We, along with several other councils in NSW, took a strong stand on this issue and it’s pleasing to see that our collective efforts have forced the Government to respond,” Mayor Tsirekas said.
“We conducted an independent community poll with the results overwhelmingly against forced amalgamations.
“Yesterday’s announcement is a small win for the community and the Minister should be congratulated in supporting local government and agreeing that councils should not be forced to amalgamate.
“This was a policy announced by the State Government when they were elected.”
Mr Tsirekas said the City of Canada Bay agreed that local government needed to look at ways of being more efficient and was looking forward to working together with the State Government to investigate how this can happen.
“With 84% of ratepayers who were interviewed by phone saying “no” to forced amalgamations, and around 80% saying “no” via the online poll, it was very clear that our community did not want to be forcibly amalgamated with another Council,” he said.
“The poll results also confirmed the outcomes of the 2012 Citizen’s Panel deliberations and a recent Customer Satisfaction Survey that showed more than 70% of residents were very satisfied with our performance.”