To nobody’s surprise, the Administrator has decided to proceed with his application to IPART for the further seven year imposition of the three-year increase already approved by IPART as a temporary measure (“Coast Connect advertisement”, PP 046).
Following on the sham questionnaire and “consultation”, we had the exhibition of multiple documents over the Xmas/New Year period when few people had the opportunity to examine them.
Then, we had the recommendations all adopted within a few days of the closing date for comments, making it obvious that, if anybody bothered to make comments about what was obviously a fait accompli, nobody took the submissions seriously enough to consider them for inclusion in the IPART submission.
Statements such as “the alternative would mean a reduction of services” or “the only way to ensure service levels remain the same is to extend out the existing structure” impressed nobody.
We have seen an inordinate increase in overhead and administrative costs at Central Coast Council, while, if anything, services have deteriorated: for example, simple development applications remain undetermined for months after expiration of the statutory period for their consideration.
Nobody believes that the Council is operating at optimal efficiency or that the economies that should have been the result of amalgamation have been achieved (or even attempted).
While some of this problem was, no doubt, caused by the incompetence of Councillors, the Administrator was put in place to remedy them, not to continue them and to demand higher charges to support them.
It is well that the Administrator should point out that we shall still have the opportunity to make our views made known to IPART, when his submission is under consideration.
There should be a maximum response to this opening, as soon as the means of doing so becomes available.
We should all study the Administrator’s documentation and respond in detail to his claims, because, unless there is a concerted effort by the whole community, it is not unlikely that this request, with all its misrepresentations, will be approved.
This might not be of concern for those who will find the extra costs easy to absorb, but I suspect that a big proportion of Central Coast’s ratepayers will find new charges a burden.
Email, Feb 13
Bruce Hyland, Woy Woy