The public consultation on the proposal to merge Gosford and Wyong included three public meetings with two of those meetings to be held at Wyong.
The single meeting at Gosford is in the morning. This is an unfair arrangement. Many people by necessity are forced to commute to workplaces outside Wyong and Gosford and the distances from Gosford to Wyong are considerable. It isn’t a 15 minute journey from Woy Woy or Gosford to the venue in Wyong LGA and for someone working throughout the day that may mean they cannot make the morning meeting at Gosford or the evening meeting at Wyong.
Could there please be an additional evening meeting in Gosford to make this process fairer for those people in the Gosford LGA and make it easier for them to have their say. We keep hearing about the benefi t of the merger but none of the downside. I am all for amalgamation but there are too many unanswered questions. For example do the people of Gosford and Wyong have any role at all in determining: the name of the new LGA; number of councillors; whether we will have wards, how many and where? There is a real risk that we could just end up with a Wyong and a Gosford ward.
What debt does each council have now and what are future costs for infrastructure maintenance? Is the $20 million offered by the state government for the new merged council enough for a transition period? Who will benefi t from projected savings, state government or ratepayers? Will the state continue to fund councils with the same level of grants? We have only just started this and already the consultation process is fl awed.
Email, Jan 13 and 20, 2016 Pat Aiken, Saratoga