The Inner West Council has voted unanimously to start preparing a business case for de-amalgamation following the resounding 'yes' vote from inner west electors to reinstate the old Marrickvile, Leichhardt and Ashfield councils.
At their first meeting of the year last week, the council voted to include the community in the business case preparation and to engage with council staff and their representatives, noting concerns put forward by council officers about the impact on morale and productivity of demerger.
At the December 4 local government election, nearly two-thirds - 62.5 per cent - of voters were in favour of reversing the forced 2016 merger that created the Inner West Council.
"There must be unanimity of elected councillors to respect the outcome of the demerger poll," Mayor Darcy Byrne told the meeting.
Moves by first-term Greens councillor Justine Langford to set a goal that the three councils be reinstated by the start of the next term of council in September 2024, and by Independent Cr John Stamolis that the council establish a special demerger committee of at least four councillors, were rejected by the new Labor majority of eight councillors.
Cr Byrne agreed a "delegation of councillors from various parties" should be involved in meetings with the State Government, and that council should "seek to include all councillors" in the process.
While the result of the December 4 poll is non-binding, the NSW Government recently passed laws allowing councils to put forward a business case for a demerger to the Minister for Local Government, Wendy Tuckerman, who will make the ultimate decision.
Cr Stamolis, who has long campaigned for deamalgamation, said it was important the community was involved in the preparation of the business case so its key concerns could be understood.
Concerns raised by demerger supporters include the decreased ratio of councillors to residents, impacts on local democracy and rates rises through harmonisation.
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