Harden Shire Council is actively investigating two possible amalgamation options to decide its future as a viable local government structure as part of the New South Wales government’s ‘Fit for the Future’ (FTFF) reform. The two options that Council is considering are mergers with Young and Boorowa as part of a ‘Hilltops’ Council, and alternatively, amalgamation with Cootamundra Shire Council with the possible inclusion of Gundagai.
The NSW government has set a deadline of June 30th 2015 for Councils to submit their plans to make themselves ‘fit for the future’. The process of local government reform was prompted the October 2013 report.
‘Revitalising Local Government’ submitted by the NSW Independent Local Government Review Panel, which identified a considerable lack of human and financial capital to sustain the 152 local Shire Councils in New South Wales.
The New South Wales government thus began the FFTF reforms by issuing Shire Councils throughout the state with self-assessment tools to establish their current ‘fitness for the future’. For a council to be declared ‘fit’, Shire Councils must successfully meet seven operational benchmarks. As evidenced in the above chart, Council was able to fulfil only three of the seven criteria.
Unfortunately, as all seven criteria haven’t successfully been met, Council has not been declared ‘fit for the future’.
As the Harden Shire shares boundaries with councils of the appropriate scale and capacity to amalgamate, Harden Shire Council did not qualify for the ‘Rural Council’ model. This means that Harden Shire Council does not have the option of going it alone. This leaves two options for Harden Shire Council: form a Hilltops Council with Boorowa and Young, or; amalgamate with Cootamundra with the possible inclusion of Gundagai.
Both of these options must demonstrate community support after an exhibition of 28 days. They must also demonstrate how the amalgamation option will effect improvements in the overall performance of the merged council in comparison to the unmerged councils.
The possibility of merging with Young and Boorowa Shire Councils to form a ‘Hilltops’ Council was the focus of an LKS Quaero study commissioned by Harden, Young and Boorowa Shire Councils in May 2014. LKS Quaero presented a draft of their findings at a joint meeting on November 24th, 2014, and released a final copy of their report in January 2015.
A Hilltops Council would combine the populations of Harden, Boorowa and Young to create a council covering 18,663 residents, with Young being by far the largest party in the proposed council with 12,514 people, or 67.05% of the total population. The scale and capacity required by the merger is easily achieved with this option.
In contrast, the balance of populations is more even in a merger between Cootamundra and Harden, with Cootamundra’s population of 7,501 and Harden Shire’s 3,680 combining to create a possible jurisdiction of 11,181 people.
“The scale and capacity required was originally defined in the Independent Local Government Review Panel report, which was around 18,000,” said Harden Shire Council General Manager, Trevor Drowley. “However, we believe that a number between 10,000 and 18,000 is likely to be looked upon favourably.”
Although Gundagai Shire Council has indicated that it intends to pursue the Rural Council model (i.e. ‘go it alone’), the inclusion of Gundagai’s 3,753 population would increase the scale and capacity of an amalgamated council including Cootamundra and Harden.
With the FFTF reform scheme about to reach the community consultation stage, four recommendations are now before Council at its February 18 business meeting: one, that the LKS Quaero Hilltops scenario report be noted; two, that the results of the review into the possible Hilltops Council scenario be put on display for public viewing until March 27th; three, that Council signals its intentions with the community to engage with Cootamundra about the possibility of a merger with Harden, and; four, that Council engage the community in public meetings at Harden, Jugiong and Galong to provide community feedback on the two merger options before Council.
The only thing certain at this stage is that change is coming.
