The State Government has announced the extension of the new Sydney Metro service from Chatswood to Bankstown.

There will be a new station at Crows Nest plus stations at North Sydney, Barrangaroo and Martin Place.

Travel tomes between the city and Chatswood are expected to improve by 10 minutes.

The planned station at Artarmon has not been dropped. Also, they have still to decide on a station at Sydney University or Waterloo.

The biggest benefit of the extension of the Metro beyond Chatswood to the city is the relief this should bring to overcrowding on the Chatswood stations when the Metro commences.

READ MORE

There have been complaints that with the electronic voting system used at Council it is difficult for the public to clearly see which Councilors have voted either for or against a motion.

One Councilor has stated that “The results flash up too quickly for me to be sure and the gallery can’t see the grid on the screen clearly so none knows how people voted. I’m annoyed, I particularly requested that we leave the votes up longer so people can see who voted what,  but even if they did, which they didn’t, the gallery can’t see the vote, the font is too small. In the olden days you had a chance of seeing the hands.”

Before electronic voting, Councilors raised their hands either for or against. It was very easy to ascertain which way a Councilor had voted.

Another problem is that the Minutes of Council meetings are often taking weeks to be placed on the Council website. The Minutes contain a record of voting.

The by-election forced by the resignation of Joe Hockey will be held on Saturday 5th December 2015.

The candidates in ballot paper order:

1. POLLARD Lou, The Arts Party
2. BOURKE William, Sustainable Population Party
3. KENNARD Sam, Liberal Democrats
4. BROMSON Kerry Susanne, Voluntary Euthanasia Party
5. JANSSON James, Future Party
6. CHESTERFIELD-EVANS Arthur, The Greens
7. BEREGI Maryann, Independent
8. NERO Silvana, Christian Democratic Party (Fred Nile Group)
9. MARKS Robert James, Palmer United Party
10. ZIMMERMAN Trent, Liberal
11. RUFF Stephen, Independent
12. FREEMAN Luke, Australian Cyclists Party
13. BOHM Tim, Bullet Train For Australia

See Details of candidates & where to vote.

READ MORE ABOUT CANDIDATES MEETING

The Cultural & Civic Committee Council meeting scheduled for Monday night has been cancelled. The next meeting will be the 15 February. The last meeting was the 19th October. That’s 3 months ‘between drinks’.

 After protesting for a number of years that Willoughby Council opposed amalgamations, this week the same Council voted to voluntarily merge with North Sydney Council !!!

This move came after renewed pressure from the State Government.

Some Willoughby Councilors opposed to amalgamation argued that based on the results of community consultation, residents are not in favour of amalgamation. The same statistics were used by others to prove that residents favoured some form of amalgamation.

Council voted unanimously in favour of the motion to voluntarily merge with North Sydney Council. Clrs Coppock and Saville were on leave. Clr Stevens was absent, having left the meeting early.Clr. Wendy Norton removed herself from the Chamber before the vote was taken and returned after the vote. Clr. Saville has subsequently indicated that she would support voluntary amalgamation. Clrs. Poccock and Stevens were asked if they support the motion. No responses has been received.

A recent letter sent to Councils by the Premier and the Minister of Local Government appears to contain veiled threats that Councillors who do not support voluntary amalgamations may suffer the consequences. Councillors who vote in favour of amalgamation have been promised that they will remain in office until their term expires in September 2016. Subsequently it has been determined that all Councilors on a Council who voted to voluntarily amalgamate will retain their seats.

An illogicality about the decision by Willoughby Council to amalgamate with North Sydney is that the State Government has mandated that voluntary amalgamations must address its ‘scale & capability’ metrics. To meet these metrics, Willoughby Council would need to merge with Mosman, North Sydney, Lane Cove, Hunter’s Hill and part of Ryde Council. So Willoughby Council’s decision is a real ‘paper tiger’.

An opportunity was lost by Willoughby Council to broker an arrangement whereby the neighbouring Councils could work together to achieve the State Government’s objectives without the need to amalgamate (such a model has been offered to rural, regional and remote Councils)..

The Premier has previously promised that Councils will be advised of their fate before the end of the year.