Queanbeyan and Palerang council areas will officially merge the NSW government announced on Thursday, May 12.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
All elected positions in both Palerang and Queanbeyan councils were dissolved as of the announcement, meaning that all councillors are out of a job.
Queanbeyan Mayor Tim Overall has been appointed Administrator of the new council for an interim period until the local government elections in September 2017.
He will oversee the merger of the two councils, including the development and implementation of a strategic 18-month plan.
“It’s important to assure all Queanbeyan and Palerang residents that despite today’s announcement, all usual Council business will continue to be undertaken during this interim phase, including the adoption of budgets for 2016-17 and implementation of services and projects contained in both budgets,” Mr Overall assured residents.
“That means water still gets delivered to taps and bins get collected.”
Queanbeyan City Council general manager Peter Tegart has now been appointed interim general manager of the Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council, while previous Palerang Council general manager, Mr Peter Bascomb, has been appointed deputy general manager of the new merged council.
Local Government NSW have said "The democratically- elected councillors unceremoniously sacked by Local Government Minister Paul Toole today have every reason to feel betrayed but the whole sector should focus on ensuring the speedy return of genuine grassroots representation"
Previous Mayor of Palerang Council, Pete Harrison said the move was, “generally disappointing but not unexpected.”
“Following from the research we've done there was no sound basis for this, and the logic and financial basis for decisions has been disregarded,” Mr Harrison said.
“It remains to be seen how the administrator systems will work.
“The administrator, Tim Overall, has complete power and no obligation whatsoever to listen to anyone else.
“For that to be one person I think is a dangerous situation.
“I come from the corporate world not the government world and I’ve been involved in a few corporate mergers in my time.
“The ones that fail most spectacularly are when you only take power from one side.
“You need to wipe out the top level from both organisations.
“There will be much more of a Queanbeyan flavour to this new council - that’s not a criticism, but I don't think this will be in the best interests of Palerang council,” he said.
The NSW Government announced that the new entity would receive a merger grant of $10m and a separate $15m grant for infrastructure-related projects.
Member for Monaro John Barilaro said, “The Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council will be better able to deliver new services, improve existing services and maintain essential local infrastructure.”
The new local government area of Queanbeyan-Palerang Council will have a population of 56,368 (increasing to 76,000 by 2031) and an area of square 5,319km.