The Central Coast Local Government Committee is supporting a No vote in the September 14 referendum.
To be held in conjunction with the Central Coast Council election, the referendum will ask voters if they are in favour of reducing the number of councillors from 15 to nine from 2028 with a resultant reduction in wards from five to three.
“Voters need to vote No in the upcoming referendum,” Committee Chair Vicki Scott said.
“Central Coast Council is, by population numbers, one of the four largest councils in metropolitan NSW.
“Geographically it covers the area between Mooney Mooney in the south to Gwandalan/Summerland Point in the north, and the beach suburbs (The Entrance and Terrigal) in the east to Spencer and Bucketty in the west.
“In terms of the other large metropolitan local government areas (LGA) the Central Coast Council is geographically much larger.
“The three other large councils, and many others in the metropolitan area, have councils made up of 15 councillors.
“A large LGA like ours would be poorly represented if we were to operate with nine councillors.
“There would be one councillor (ie, elected representative) for every 38,511 residents, as opposed to one councillor for every 23,106 residents if we have 15 councillors.”
Scott said it was crucial to good representation and good governance that councillors have the opportunity to meet with residents as often as possible.
“This happens at public meetings, council meetings, meetings held by organisations such as progress and community associations, sporting groups, P&Cs and P&Fs, service clubs and many more,” she said.
“Importantly residents are able to meet individually with councillors to discuss matters that involve them.
“A smaller number of councillors would seriously impact on the work of councillors and council and residents would suffer.
“The Central Coast Local Government Committee calls on voters to vote no for the referendum on September 14, and in doing so, protect residents’ democratic rights to fair representation in local government.”
Experience has shown that smaller Councils can be more effective for obvious reasons. It depends also how the individual Councilors organise themselves. We want doers not politicians!