Why is Central Coast Administrator Rik Hart telling local community groups to vote yes in the upcoming referendum to reducing the number of councillors and wards in the local government area?
Why would anyone vote for less local government representation and hence less democracy, when our council area is expected to grow in population to more than 400,000 by 2041?
Under the proposal of nine councillors, the individual roles and responsibilities of councillors will carry a more than 50 per cent increase in the constituent representation number per councillor from the existing 15 councillor ratio.
How can that be a better deal?
The Central Coast has already seen a reduction in the number of councillors from 20 prior to the amalgamation of the previous Gosford and Wyong councils to 15 and now we are being told we only need nine.
This is not a community requested referendum, but an imposed one.
Imposed by one person who has made the decision for all of us, with the rationale of less is best.
Less is best sometimes, but not this time.
If you care about the lack of democracy that the Central Coast has been living under now for some years, if you care about democracy at all and want a council that cares about the community, then I urge you to vote no in this referendum and vote to retain 15 councillors.
That is the best way to keep our Central Coast Council accountable to its residents and ratepayers.
Email, Jun 17
Sharon Walsh, Saratoga
12 would be the right number,!
I get the feeling that the administrator’s best number of councillors would be all the way down to one