Greg Knott of Ourimbah is determined to see elected councillors returned to the Central Coast as soon as possible and, together with his wife Justine Rudston-Brown, has launched an e-petition asking the State Government to rethink its decision to defer elections until September, 2024.
Launched just a week ago, the petition had already attracted almost 300 signatures as CCN went to press.
“I wanted to stop procrastinating,” Knott said.
“Like a lot of people I have been saying we need to do something to get local representation back and I finally decided to take action.
“We may not agree with our elected representatives but at least we get to choose them to be our voice.”
Knott said without elected councillors, he feared Central Coast Council has a confused agenda.
“Council starts to lose touch with the community with no clear lines of communication,” he said.
“That community aspect is missing – Council feels like a business and not a representation of community like-minded individuals.”
Knott said with regard to the financial difficulties which led to the eventual sacking of councillors and the extension of the period of administration earlier this year, following a public inquiry into Council’s financial difficulties, there was more to the story “than we’ll probably ever know”.
“I’d like to be somebody who can try and find that out,” he said.
Knott said without elected representatives to approach, community members were hampered in raising issues of concern.
He said he would like to have seen an election in September this year.
“However that is no longer realistic based on the timeframe, so (a more realistic time) might be February or, more likely, March, next year.,” he said.
Knott is hoping to attract 20,000 signatures to the petition, at which time it would be debated in Parliament.
Directed to the Speaker and Members of the Legislative Assembly, the petition is on the NSW Parliament petitions page and outlines the fact that the councillors were first suspended and an administrator appointed in October 20.
“The Central Coast Council has been without leadership since it went into administration in October 2020,” it says.
“Recently it was announced that elections would be held in line with the next round of local council elections on September 14, 2024.
“This will leave Central Coast residents without a voice for almost four years and no local democracy
“Currently Central Coast residents have no input into local issues.
“The Central Coast is in a state of disrepair with dangerous potholes on major roads, locals parks overgrown, vandalised and some closed for extended periods.
“I would request a review of the decision to delay Central Coast Council elections for two more years.”
If you would like to sign the petition, you can find the link on the Petition for Central Coast Council elections Facebook page.
Terry Collins
Not everyone on the planet does facebook, especially me. If you’d like me to sign something, have some alternatives.
lets get a new council in place its super important for the revival of the coast. i sent photos in an email of my local oval and park that used to be well maintained but has been left to overgrow above head height in some areas and was becoming unusable due to the mosquito populatian that we have been told to avoid. the response was after several weeks was that it wasnt a priority as other critical maintenance needed doing. so i now need a new tyre and a wheel alignment due to the potholes i havent been able to walk my dog in the safety of the local park but lets put a bunch of new wheelchair corners in. there was nothing wrong with the ones that were there. lets get this council sorted
I second that something other than Face(we sell your data for profit)book
should be used ‘
I avoid the empire(Facebook) as much as possible and certainly would not trust them with information on how residents view local lack of government