It is too difficult for councils to reach any agreement on amalgamation or indeed changes to local government boundaries.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
This was quite evident in the decision taken by Hunter Councils at their recent meeting.
The state government will have to make those changes.
The proposed amalgamation of Dungog Local Government area with Maitland City Council is too big an ask of Maitland council.
It would be more practical to split Dungog local government area by way of boundary adjustments with its four adjoining councils, Port Stephens, Maitland, Great Lakes and Singleton.
I recall that a few years ago a survey of Gresford residents indicated they would prefer to join Singleton Shire.
This proposal would reduce the burden on any one council and make it much easier to accommodate townships within Dungog with neighbouring councils with common community interests.
There would be a need to adopt well-defined boundaries like rivers, main roads and railway where possible.
It would also mean the state government injecting many millions of dollars to bring Dungog’s infrastructure up to an acceptable standard.
It is appropriate at this time for Maitland and councils to the south be engaged to make changes to their boundaries, again using community commonality interests and well-defined boundaries.
One simple well-defined boundary would be the new Hunter Expressway from west of Branxton to John Renshaw Drive to Tarro Rail Bridge and possibly use the Hunter River to the Williams River junction with the Hunter River; this may allow Wallalong and Hinton communities to also come into consideration.
- Ray Fairweather, East Maitland