Shadow Minister For Local Government Peter Primrose supporting protesters for Save Tumbarumba Shire Inc and Save Gundagai Shire at Albury today.
Over an hour ago an amendment was proposed and carried at the Annual Local Government Conference held in Albury.
The amendment and resolution now become part of policy for Local Government New South Wales.
Over 132 local government areas are attending the 2 day conference including Hilltops, which has Mayor Brian Ingram, Councillor Margaret Roles and new General Manager Edwina Marks.
Hilltops Council has two voting delegates at the conference, however, it is unclear at this stage how members of the Hilltops contingent have voted.
Councillor Stadtmiller of Harden moved a Notice of Motion at the September Council meeting which was voted down. It was similar to the motion at the Local Government Conference in that it was seeking to allow a plebiscite (more formal vote) for residents of individual towns to state if they wanted to remain merged or return to their former Shire Council boundaries.
The LGNSW motion will now give more impetus to areas who continue to fight against their forced merger and to those who continue to forcibly remain in mergers that their communities did not want to be a part of.
The former Harden Shire did not want to merge with any other Shire area and unanimously rejected the LKS Quaro report which detailed the proposed successes of a merger between Young, Boorowa and Harden. Those successes are yet to be realised.
The LGNSW amendment states…. That Local Government NSW
- gives solidarity with the people of Tumbarumba and Gundagai as they seek to demerge from their forcibly amalgamated councils and similarly supports any other communities that seek to emerge from a forcibly amalgamated Council.
- lobbies for a change to the Local Government Act to prevent the forced amalgamation of Councils or significant boundary alteration without the support of a plebiscite.
NOTE Councillor Rita O’Connor did not attend the conference as previously stated.
