TWEED Mayor Barry Longland has warned council would be “gutted’’ and relegated to a works depot, with 300 jobs at risk should a proposal to merge Northern Rivers councils into one mega-structure go ahead.
Councillor Longland made the comments in response to the release last Thursday of the final discussion paper into the future of local government in NSW by the Independent Review of Local Government Panel (IRLGP).
The paper, entitled Future Directions for NSW Local Government: Twenty Essential Steps, recommends a drastic restructure of local government in NSW, including reducing the state’s 152 councils to less than 100 through voluntary amalgamations, mergers and other means.
Twenty multi-level regional bodies, to be known as county councils, would be formed outside of the Sydney metropolitan area, with the Tweed Shire to be included in the greater Northern Rivers County Council alongside Byron, Ballina and Lismore, with Lismore designated as the regional centre.
Other recommendations include increasing the remuneration and training of councillors and for mayors of larger councils to be popularly elected and awarded more power.
But the paper, released for public consultation ahead of a series of community meetings across the state, was blasted by Cr Longland who warned the Tweed would be devastated by such a proposal.
“Tweed Shire Council as a stand-alone council will be gutted – we will be relegated to an outpost of Lismore with all major service functions heading south,’’ Cr Longland said.
“Up to 300 positions are at risk if this proposal proceeds as we are the Tweed’s largest employer.
“Services set to go are our water and sewer which represent approximately 37 per cent of our business, our transport/road network planning, strategic regional and sub-regional planning, corporate services, waste and environmental management.
“The panel says the Tweed will go on but the reality is that Tweed Shire Council cannot survive under this model with this drastic loss of services and we will be relegated to just a works depot.’’
Cr Longland will meet with IRLGP chairman Professor Graham Sansom next Tuesday to discuss the proposal and argue for the Tweed to remain as a stand-alone entity.
He said the Tweed’s recognition by the NSW Government as one of eight regional cities of NSW and the largest regional council outside the greater Sydney basin, had been ignored by the review.
He added Tweed ratepayers, as part of the most financially sound council on the Northern Rivers, would be forced to subsidise their poorer neighbours should the merger go ahead.
“People in Tweed and South Tweed who have patiently waited for their roads to be upgraded will have to get in line behind bridges in Kyogle and potholes in Lismore,’’ he said.
But Professor Sansom, who knows the Tweed region well, denied such an outcome.
