Unelected council should not keep spending our money
Well done to Debbie Sunartha for raising the issue of destructive development on the Peninsula and calling for the Council chief executive to put a stop to it (Letters, 30 May 2022).
However, Mr Farmer is only continuing the wider destruction of the foundations of our community that Councils have been presiding over for years.
The whole Local Government Area is beset by bad, pot-holed roads and poor drainage.
Road and laneway verges, parklands and open spaces are choked with weeds, litter and overgrowing trees and shrubs.
Open spaces, the foreshores and the sand dunes are being destroyed by badly-designed and badly-maintained stormwater drainage.
This unelected Council staff and Administrator should not be allowed to keep on spending ratepayers' money on additional, unnecessary and unwarranted things that do not benefit the majority of the community.
They should be required to direct the majority of Council money and resources to providing and maintaining basic, necessary infrastructure, facilities and services throughout the whole Council area.
Their focus should be on ensuring that the whole area is liveable, habitable and safe from destructive human intervention.
Who can stop the Council from making things worse with overdevelopment?
Who can stop the Council from failing to provide and maintain the underlying infrastructure and the basic, necessary roads and drainage?
Who will rein in Council spending on "discretionary" activities, balance the budget and stop causing increasing rates and charges?
The current Administrator, a previous chief executive of this Council, has questions to answer for his ongoing failure to deal with these issues, on both his watches.
When we get elected representatives back in Council chambers, and once they can balance the budget and sustain the basic infrastructure, facilities and services, then they can ask us for agreement to spend our money on additional "lifestyle" and "social" things.
So, my call is to the Parliamentary Secretary for the Central Coast: What are you doing to engage the Minister for Local Government, the Minister for the Environment, the Treasurer and indeed the Premier and all your cabinet colleagues, to intervene in this ongoing failure of the Central Coast Council?
With an election coming up, the NSW Government should not only be worried about Teal Independents, but also real individuals who can influence outcomes for the whole community.
SOURCE:
Email, 2 Jun 2022
Ian Weekley, Umina Beach