4 September 2024

 

THE Central Coast Local Government Committee has voted to support the No Campaign in relation to the referendum being held in conjunction with the Local Government Election on Saturday 14 September. Voting in both the referendum and the Local Government Election are compulsory.

 

The referendum is to determine whether Central Coast Council should have nine councillors as opposed to the existing 15 councillors.

 

The referendum will also determine a change in numbers of wards, from the current five wards down to three wards.

 

Mrs Scott said, “The Central Coast Council is, by population numbers, one of the four largest councils in metropolitan NSW. Geographically it covers the area between Mooney Mooney in the south to Swansea in the north, and the beach suburbs (The Entrance and Terrigal) in the east to Spencer and Bucketty in the west. In terms of the other large metropolitan LGAs the Central Coast Council is geographically much larger.

 

“The three other large councils, and many others in the metropolitan area, have councils made up of 15 councillors.

 

“A large LGA like ours would be poorly represented if we were to operate with nine councillors. There would be one councillor (ie, elected representative) for every 38,511 residents, as opposed to one councillor for every 23,106 residents if we have 15 councillors.

 

“It is crucial to good representation and good governance that our councillors have the opportunity to meet with residents as often as possible. This happens at public meetings, council meetings, meetings held by organisations such as progress and community associations, sporting groups, P&Cs and P&Fs, service clubs and many more. Importantly residents are able to meet individually with councillors to discuss matters that involve them. A small number of councillors would seriously impact on the work of councillors and council, and residents would suffer."

 

The Central Coast Local Government Committee is calling on voters to vote NO for the referendum on September 14, and in doing so, protect residents’ democratic rights to fair representation in local government.

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