Too many flying solo – councils ‘patchy’ on sharing
Vikki Campion
The Daily Telegraph
December 08, 201212:00AM
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THE sharing of services has been labelled “patchy and uneven” in a report looking at whether NSW councils should be amalgamated.
A new, streamlined body called Councils of Mayors has been proposed if there are major mergers, forcing effective regional collaboration and resource sharing.
“If a major restructuring of councils were to occur, the experience in Queensland suggests that there would be a period of considerable upheaval as newly created councils develop and implement new administrative structures and management systems,” the Enhance Regional Collaboration Amongst Councils In NSW paper said.”If the amalgamation process were to result in very large councils, these bodies would capture much of the potential economies of scale and scope in their own right.”
Independent Local Government Review Panel chairman Professor Graham Sansom said establishing much stronger regional groupings of authorities was an important element of ongoing reform.
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“The paper we’ve released today suggests that one option would be to create powerful Councils of Mayors based on a modified version of current legislation,” he said.
“These new organisations could undertake strategic planning and deliver a wide range of services on behalf of their member councils.”
Prof Sansom said far-reaching changes were inevitable for local government throughout Australia.
“We know that many councils in NSW are unsustainable in the medium-longer term,” he said.
“We also know that a lot of local infrastructure needs urgent upgrading and that communities will need new and different services in 25 years time. Local government needs to change to adapt to this.”
Staunch opponents to merger plans have been calling for more resource sharing, but the report found just 11 Regions of Councils, which consist of groups of geographically close councils, were buying together and only four shared commercial services.
“While the initial changes could be instituted relatively quickly, the development of enhanced regional collaboration and shared services could take longer and the results are likely to be uneven,” the paper said.
Investigations found some councils thought shared services were “at best a poor cousin of local government amalgamations in achieving greater efficiencies”.