An early graphic pre forced amalgamation depicting 7 Councils in a ‘Super Council’

News from Local Government Minister, Shelley Hancock’s Office last week has prompted a number of locals to continue to pursue a petition to demerge Hilltops Council. Residents of Harden are now likely to join with members of the Young Community and Residents Association and members of the Boorowa community to coordinate an approach which will secure enough signatures to trigger a review of the Hilltops merger.
Hancock stated via a media release last week, “I have determined that proposals to demerge Snowy Valleys Council and
Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council should proceed to the next stage in the formal assessment process.
I have listened carefully to the views of the community, the councils and local members in making this decision. The elector proposals have been initially assessed by the Office of Local Government against criteria under the Local Government Act and found to be valid. This included confirming with the NSW Electoral Commission that signatories to the proposals were enrolled electors. As required under the Act, I will now give public notice of the proposals to allow the councils and electors to make submissions. By law I am then required to consider all submissions before formally referring the proposals to the Local Government Boundaries
Commission, an independent statutory authority, for examination and report. I have also asked the Office of Local Government to continue to work closely with Snowy Valleys and Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional councils and monitor their performance.”
Hilltops Council has been marred by cost blowouts at the Young Pool, the proposed construction of a joint use library facility in Young and a huge turnover of staff including 4 staff who have left the organisation out of the 6 person executive team in the last 12 months.

A meeting of supporters who wish to discuss the possibility of demerging Hilltops Shire and a return to the former Harden Shire has been called at 6:00pm on Monday December 9 at the Harden District Bowling Club.

Those seeking a demerger are invited to attend.