Residents are increasingly angry that services have deteriorated, the new tree policy is environmentally destructive and council assets are being slated for sale or pepper-corn rentals to private corporations.
On top of all this, the “rate harmonisation” plan is about to kick in. Residents in the former council area of Marrickville will be forced to pay a substantial amount more. This, the government says will be “fairer”.
The Local Government Amendment Bill 2021 is set to go to the Legislative Council this session. Its main objective is to make the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal’s (IPART) recommendations on new rates lawful. IPART decided last September to set the rate peg for all NSW councils 2021-2022 at 2%, down from 2.6% the previous year.
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âHeritageâ conjures images of beautiful Victorian-era cottages, massive Gothic Revival mansions and buildings of historical civic import.
But among the many Sydney icons that grace the NSW heritage list are more curious and contentious inclusions that range from public toilets to bus shelters and an airport access road.
NSW Arts Minister Don Harwin last week announced a major overhaul of the stateâs heritage laws to make it easier and less expensive to own or adapt heritage-listed buildings.
Tom Forrest, chief executive of the Urban Taskforce, which lobbies on behalf of developers, says heritage had been âweaponisedâ, with councils seeking to have properties listed after they have been rezoned for development and purchased.
Sydney s strangest heritage buildings include bus shelters, public toilets and sewers smh.com.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from smh.com.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The NSW Legislative Council committee released its findings on March 30. The Stronger Communities Fund issued grants to councils affected by the government’s forced amalgamations in 2016.
Inquiry chair and NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge said the fund was ”an alarming example of the lack of transparency and accountability” in grant programs and described it as an election “bribe”.
“The fund was originally established to assist councils created from the NSW government’s failed council amalgamations,” he said, “but morphed into a brazen pork-barrel scheme.
“Ultimately the Coalition designed a scheme with so few checks and balances that $252 million of public money was handed out on a purely political basis to sort out the Coalition’s political problems, to gain an advantage in the 2019 state election and to punish any council that had objected to being forcibly merged.”
The council’s community engagement found that 76% of people who filled in the online feedback form on the proposed rate changes opposed the proposed new rates structure. In the former Marrickville council area, where rates are set to rise the highest, some people will be paying up to 50% more.
“People are upset because the forced amalgamation of Marrickville, Leichhardt and Ashfield Councils has brought in a less representative Council, poorer services and now proposed higher rates, especially for residents of the former Marrickville Council area,” Pip Hinman, an organiser of the bicycle ride, told
Green Left.
“The council’s reported $1.03 billion budget blow-out is driving the rate rises,” Hinman continued. “And they are not the only service fee hikes, either. The sale of council property or, rather, our property is theft. The rate rises and outsourcing of council services is the wrong approach.”