Mayor Byrne said plans to remove suburbs with strong Hills connections, such as Carlingford, North Rocks and Winston Hills would be “a major blow”.
The NSW Government’s proposal would see The Hills Shire Council broken into two; with suburbs above the M2 merging with Hawkesbury City Council while suburbs south of the M2, including parts of Baulkham Hills, North Rocks, Carlingford, Winston Hills, Northmead and Oatlands, becoming part of an expanded Parramatta City Council which includes parts of Auburn and Holroyd.
Supportive of local government reform, Hills Council suggested merging with Hawkesbury Council as a preferred amalgamation partner, on the condition that The Hills and Hawkesbury would not lose any of their current suburbs to another LGA.
“I’m extremely disappointed, particularly considering we were told that boundary adjustments were out of the question and that only full mergers would be considered. That is why we nominated a full merger with Hawkesbury and gave up on our original plan to slightly alter our boundaries with Hawkesbury, Hornsby and Parramatta,” Clr Byrne said.
“How absurd is it for one of the State’s fittest and top-performing councils to be the one that is broken up to support unfit neighbours? It’s akin to modern day ‘Robin Hood’ behaviour that trashes our history, hard work, sacrifice and success.”
Mayor Byrne said that the strong ties and sense of belonging for suburbs like Carlingford, North Rocks, Baulkham Hills and Winston Hills was reciprocal.
“I cannot see how the Parramatta proposal is in the best interest of those suburbs and it’s hard to imagine how they will be proportionally represented by that council, given its focus will inevitably be on Parramatta CBD and Sydney Olympic Park.
“I can see these residents being forgotten by the Parramatta-led Council, as they’ve been forgotten by Parramatta City Council before on issues like light rail. When the NSW Government announced they would build a Western Sydney Light Rail network, The Hills was the only LGA to make the case for Carlingford.”
Mayor Byrne said that the communities of interest between Hills suburbs extended to where residents shopped, engaged in community groups and sent their children to school.
She said that given the mammoth task already facing councils to merge existing organisations, the NSW Government should avoid complex boundary adjustments.
“This boundary adjustment is a distraction that is unnecessary and I think will prove to be unpopular with our residents. A survey we conducted last year showed a resounding 90 per cent of residents opposed the Government’s expanded Parramatta idea,” Clr Byrne said.
“The reform process needs to be as simple as possible to ensure that our ratepayers will experience minimal changes to the way they interact with council.”
Clr Byrne said Hills would have to invest a lot of money into Hawkesbury to bring it up to scratch and could not afford to lose a strong rate base.
She said that council and councillors could only do so much and that it was up to the residents to make their voices heard by making an online submission.
“If this issue is important to you, especially if you live in Baulkham Hills, North Rocks, Carlingford, Winston Hills, Northmead and Oatlands then you must have a say. It will be too little too late if the Government proceeds and then the residents complain about it later,” the Mayor said.
