Forum –
Gary Blaschke makes some good points (“Amalgamation has not been a good thing for residents”, CCC208, September 30), but many of his complaints have nothing to do with amalgamation.
The 2036 Regional Plan would always have been prepared, the Coordinator-General would always have been appointed (whatever happened to her?), the Planning Panels would always have been put in place, and the Gosford Plan would always have been foisted on us, regardless of the local councils involved.
It is true that, instead of reconfiguring the administration and setting a path for the new council, the Administrator (expensively) frittered away the opportunity and left nothing of any permanent value as a result of his long distance, chair warming tenure.
However, the other matters that Mr Blaschke refers to are simply a result of the kind of councillors we elected, so we have nobody but ourselves to blame.
Ratepayers seem to be fond of whining about the council’s performance but they re-elect the same old dead wood each time, with a donkey vote for whichever political party they favour.
My position is that political party affiliations should not be allowed on local government ballots.
Let each candidate make his own case with his constituency so that, at least, voters would have to know the names of the candidates they are choosing.
Email, Oct 1
Bruce Hyland, Woy Woy