Our amalgamated Central Coast Council is the third largest in NSW after Blacktown and Canterbury Bankstown, both covering five wards with 15 councillors, respectively.
The decision to impose this referendum on the Central Coast community was made by a former administrator in 2021 without any credible rationale or adequately established consultation with our community.
Currently, each of our councillors will represent 23,105 residents/ratepayers but if that former administrator gets his wish, each councillor will be required to represent the needs of 38,500 residents/ratepayers of the Central Coast.
Consequently, we would be the most disadvantaged local government area in the entire state of NSW.
Such an impost on our future councillors would severely limit their ability to communicate, represent or consult with our community at all and will most certainly diminish our local democracy.
It is impossible to believe there is a genuine or credible purpose to this proposition based on the facts of no adequate consultation and no demonstrated efficiency.
What is possible to believe is that a reduced council could easily be hijacked by small interest groups, without any regular accountability or transparency to the broader community.
Our community would surrender oversight of outsourcing of jobs, sale of our assets and massive over-development.
Vote no.
Email Aug 19
Anne Craig, Ourimbah