By NIKKI TODD
TWEED Shire Council will refuse to participate in any merger, including any trial study, involving the fusion of shires in the Northern Rivers into one mega county council.
The Independent Local Government Review Panel (ILGRP), established by the NSW Government last year, issued a final discussion paper last April recommending the fusion of Byron, Ballina, Lismore, Kyogle, Richmond Valley and Tweed shire councils into one mega council.
The new multi-purpose council, dubbed Northern Rivers County Council, would be centred in Lismore and headed by the Lismore mayor.
The proposal is part of the panel’s recommendation of a drastic restructure of local government in NSW, which would see the state’s 152 councils reduced to less than 100 through voluntary amalgamations, mergers and other means.
Describing the issue as one of “great urgency’’, Tweed councillors on Thursday voted unanimously to endorse a motion outlining the Tweed’s strong opposition to the proposal.
The motion directs Mayor Barry Longland to inform Local Government Minister Don Page, the ILGRP and his fellow mayors in the region that Tweed is “strongly opposed and will not participate in” any country council scheme, or even any pilot or trial study based upon such a proposal.
In addition, Tweed will reconsider its membership of the Northern Rivers Regional Organisation of Councils (NOROC), which currently represents eight councils in the region, in protest against any such study.
“The Tweed stands to lose a lot from this,’’ Cr Longland said.
“Not just in our planning and infrastructure provision and policy but we would lose a fair bit of our identity and possibly our services that will be taken out of the Tweed, taking jobs away.
“It is all bad and what annoys me is if you look at Kyogle, Casino, Lismore, Ballina and Byron, all of those councils combined have less population than the Tweed. So how they can run this argument is beyond me.’’
Cr Longland said a pilot study into the mega council proposal had been supported by other NOROC members despite the Tweed’s strong and vocal opposition to the idea since it was first launched.
“NOROC general managers have been forging ahead to try and put their hands up for this trial, notwithstanding that we don’t want it,’’ Cr Longland said.
“We want to make it as clear as possible that we are dead against this. If they were to just forge on ahead without taking account of our objections to it, we would have to re-examine our commitment to the NOROC model.’’
In its official response to the ILGRP, Tweed argues the mega council model would significantly weaken the council as a range of functions would be transferred to Lismore.
“Tweed Shire Council may suffer to the extent of not being sustainable into the future, with local government services for its 90,000 residents eventually provided for by the county council in Lismore,’’ the paper said.
Council argues there is a compelling reason for the Tweed to remain as a stand-alone entity due to its size, sound service delivery, viable water catchment and strong socio-economic links with south-east Queensland.
It said the importance of the cross-border influence could not be over-emphasised, with most residents looking north for activities, not south to Lismore.
This was supported by the latest ABS data which found just 127 Tweed residents travelled to Lismore each day for work compared to 6131 residents who travelled to the Gold Coast for work.
The ILGRP is expected to make its final recommendations to the NSW Government by September.
