JayT
July 20th, 2004, 12:15 AM
Councils put merger option on the agenda
Glenis Green
20jul04
THE Sunshine Coast's three councils – Maroochy, Noosa and Caloundra City – will investigate the advantages of a possible future amalgamation following discussions yesterday with Deputy Premier Terry Mackenroth.
However Mr Mackenroth said there was no way that the State Government would ever force a merger through legislation, saying it was up to the councils involved to initiate any changes.
Mr Mackenroth was on the Sunshine Coast to address a Sunshine Coast Regional Organisation of Councils (SunROC) meeting on the role of his new Office of Urban Management and how its vision for planning southeast Queensland would dovetail with councils' own planning.
He said he was pleased that the councils themselves had taken debate about a future "supercouncil" on board.
"The thing I was really, really pleased about today at the SunROC round table was that the councils themselves are now talking about looking at doing a study on governance on the Sunshine Coast and governance means whether there should be any change of boundaries," he said.
Mr Mackenroth said he had first challenged the community about the merger debate during a visit six weeks ago.
"The three mayors today said they were prepared to allow SunROC to have a look at the governance model," he said. "I'm really pleased about that. We've not seen that from the Sunshine Coast councils in the past when there has been talk about it, so at least they're prepared to look at it."
Mr Mackenroth said the Government would ask councils to make the approach regarding any possible future merger rather than legislate for any arbitrary amalgamation, if their studies showed there were benefits to the Sunshine Coast.
"If they make that request we would be prepared to take action," he said.
"It's up to councils to bring forward that debate to us."
SunROC chairman and Caloundra City Mayor Don Aldous said he and the other two Sunshine Coast mayors – Joe Natoli (Maroochydore) and Bob Abbot (Noosa) – were "happy and comfortable to move forward with a study to show us why we should and why we shouldn't (merge)".
However he said both the councils and their communities needed to weigh up the benefits before moving any further down the track.
"I think we all need to take a cold shower and we need to sit back and let this progress out of the economic development study that's being done at this point in time and will be presented next month to the round table of SunROC."
Debate about the possibility of merging the three Sunshine Coast councils was reignited last month in a report released by the Property Council of Australia.
The council's Queensland executive director, Robert Walker, said the current three-council system was hampering development and was not cost-effective.
Premier Peter Beattie bought into the row by suggesting that the Gold Coast worked well as a single city and that Sunshine Coast residents should ask their councils to follow suit.
Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg said although Mr Beattie had said he would never force an amalgamation, his comments were putting pressure on the three councils.
http://www.couriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,10184256%255E3102,00.html
___________________________________________________________________________
Adding those 3 Sunshine Coast municipalities together would create a city with a population of around 260,000 people - one of Australias largest after Brisbane and Gold Coast Cities.
jt
Glenis Green
20jul04
THE Sunshine Coast's three councils – Maroochy, Noosa and Caloundra City – will investigate the advantages of a possible future amalgamation following discussions yesterday with Deputy Premier Terry Mackenroth.
However Mr Mackenroth said there was no way that the State Government would ever force a merger through legislation, saying it was up to the councils involved to initiate any changes.
Mr Mackenroth was on the Sunshine Coast to address a Sunshine Coast Regional Organisation of Councils (SunROC) meeting on the role of his new Office of Urban Management and how its vision for planning southeast Queensland would dovetail with councils' own planning.
He said he was pleased that the councils themselves had taken debate about a future "supercouncil" on board.
"The thing I was really, really pleased about today at the SunROC round table was that the councils themselves are now talking about looking at doing a study on governance on the Sunshine Coast and governance means whether there should be any change of boundaries," he said.
Mr Mackenroth said he had first challenged the community about the merger debate during a visit six weeks ago.
"The three mayors today said they were prepared to allow SunROC to have a look at the governance model," he said. "I'm really pleased about that. We've not seen that from the Sunshine Coast councils in the past when there has been talk about it, so at least they're prepared to look at it."
Mr Mackenroth said the Government would ask councils to make the approach regarding any possible future merger rather than legislate for any arbitrary amalgamation, if their studies showed there were benefits to the Sunshine Coast.
"If they make that request we would be prepared to take action," he said.
"It's up to councils to bring forward that debate to us."
SunROC chairman and Caloundra City Mayor Don Aldous said he and the other two Sunshine Coast mayors – Joe Natoli (Maroochydore) and Bob Abbot (Noosa) – were "happy and comfortable to move forward with a study to show us why we should and why we shouldn't (merge)".
However he said both the councils and their communities needed to weigh up the benefits before moving any further down the track.
"I think we all need to take a cold shower and we need to sit back and let this progress out of the economic development study that's being done at this point in time and will be presented next month to the round table of SunROC."
Debate about the possibility of merging the three Sunshine Coast councils was reignited last month in a report released by the Property Council of Australia.
The council's Queensland executive director, Robert Walker, said the current three-council system was hampering development and was not cost-effective.
Premier Peter Beattie bought into the row by suggesting that the Gold Coast worked well as a single city and that Sunshine Coast residents should ask their councils to follow suit.
Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg said although Mr Beattie had said he would never force an amalgamation, his comments were putting pressure on the three councils.
http://www.couriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,10184256%255E3102,00.html
___________________________________________________________________________
Adding those 3 Sunshine Coast municipalities together would create a city with a population of around 260,000 people - one of Australias largest after Brisbane and Gold Coast Cities.
jt