As a result of the sad administration period of council, we have, rather than two councils each having public council meetings fortnightly, one council meeting per month.
A reduction of three meetings per month to only one, that is a reduction of 75 per cent.
We had a total of 20 councillors across the two council areas.
We now have 15 councillors, a reduction of five councillors or 25 per cent less representation.
Yet we have the same population which is growing.
In the Gosford area, we had previously only the need for five written objections for a development application to be presented to the council meeting for discussion, we now have the need for 50 written objections.
Keeping in mind that there is a large elderly and commuter population, plus now most houses don’t even have the newspaper which the Council advertises in delivered, and the same paper has a block on it when you reach a certain number of views online, most residents won’t even know a development is proposed.
So from five to 50, that is a 400 per cent increase in the need for objection letters.
We also had a number of community groups, with interested and skilled residents in the area as members, who consulted the council and are almost all gone, except for the Protection of The Environment Trust.
When will the new councillors stand up and give the residents of the Central Coast the representation they deserve?
Residents deserve regular council meetings, adequate councillor numbers, representatives who make decisions, not back room box tickers of developer mates and minions for the state government pushing to ignore residents and skilled community representatives guiding council and councillors.
These reductions weren’t to save money, they were to reduce the ‘say’ that Councillors have.
Step up Councillors and do the job that you were elected to do.
Email, Nov 9
Gary Oxford, Terrigal