Forum –
One must applaud the decision to place Central Coast Council under administration.
Suspension (of councillors) by the Minister for Local Government Shelley Hancock was a necessary action on a number of fronts, especially Council’s unwillingness to disclose comprehensive details on its financial position.
The neglect of pocket communities is another concern.
Jane Smith [says] that while the councillors are away, Central Coast communities lack representation.
What representation?
Ms Smith won’t even answer emails from voters from her own Ward.
I think this speaks more to misrepresentation than representation; a case in point being the decades-long neglect of roads and footpaths in pocket communities, such as Empire Bay.
Here, the most the Council can do is to inform troubled residents the repair of roads and the provision of footpaths will be many years in the future.
Residents have waited many years from the past.
Voices from multiple pocket communities generally are not heard, while councillors bask in … new developments in central business districts.
Meanwhile, pocket communities on the Central Coast are ignored and become increasingly rundown.
If any assistance is provided, grants come from other levels of government.
Elsewhere, councillors become so immersed in future development; only at election time are the real needs of constituents given recognition – and faux recognition at that.
Email, Dec 9
Peter Sinclair, Empire Bay