Transition costs, roads and electricity prices – these are just some of the issues that Hilltops Council Mayor Brian Ingram brought to the table at a recent mayoral round-table held in Cowra hosted by the Labor Party.
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Mayor Ingram and Hilltops Council General Manager Anthony McMahon were joined by other mayors from across the Cootamundra electorate for a “full and frank” forum on the issues affecting local government.
Mayor Ingram said the forum would be a learning opportunity.
“I’m planning to bring myself to listen and take on board the conversation, there’s no shared agenda,” he said.
“I imagine the conversation will be around issues concerning local government that the state government can help with and leading up to the fact that there will be another election in 15, 16 months, the state politicians are obviously out on the campaign trail early, which is good, wanting to hear what local governments are after and what they need and how we need assistance.
“It’s pleasing to see they’ve taken this step, I understand it used to be a concept that was done before.”
Mayor Ingram said the number one concern for Hilltops was the transition costs after council amalgamation.
“I’ve still got issues relating to transition costs,” he said. “We had a meeting with the Premier who said she would look at it very closely and the promises that were made by the state government that the ratepayers would not be put out of pocket. I will be talking about that matter because I have received assurance, I just haven’t received the cheque yet.”
Mayor Ingram also said that common issues across councils such as roads and electricity prices would be addressed.
“There are concerns over the issue of electricity prices and local government, what role we can play there,” he said. “We have an obligation to employers in our Shire to make things as easy and competitive as they can be so that might come into play. There’s a lot of experience in this room and I’ll hopefully learn from it.”
Mr Veitch, Shadow Minister for Primary Industry, Lands and Western NSW, and Mr Searle, Labor Leader in the Upper House, invited mayors and general managers from councils in the Cootamundra electorate to the forum as an opportunity to raise any issues in their respective LGAs.
“When you develop policy in opposition, you need to be able to have full and frank conversations with all stakeholder groups, and local councils are at coalface of their community and they lobby hard, they advocate hard on behalf of their communities,” Mr Veitch said.
