Hawkesbury Council on the basis of a full merger with the whole Hills Shire. She remains committed to Local Government Reform as she believes it is in the public's best interest for the industry to be resourceful, efficient and effective. The factors to be considered by Delegates and the Boundary Commission are set out in s263(3) of the Local Government Act.
The Board of Delegates will consider all criteria to assist in the submission of each merger proposal. Amalgamation Proposal 1 - Hawkesbury City Council with part of The Hills Shire Council Amalgamation Proposal 1 proposes to amalgamate the whole of the Hawkesbury local government area and part of The Hills local government area north of the M2 motorway. The Hills Shire Council appointed Hawkesbury on the basis that the ILGRP envisaged this merger in the future and that it responded to the desire to fully merge the two organizations as its priority if a merger was warranted.
The financial advantages or disadvantages (including the economies of scale or disadvantages) of a relevant proposal for the residents and taxpayers of the areas concerned. The KMPG's assumptions should be considered in the overall context of the information and assumptions on which it is based.
Hawkesbury City Council
Due to operating under "Deficits", Hawkesbury Council has not been able to allocate this level of funding for asset maintenance. The proposed merger with the Hills/Hawkesbury section will see the merged Council be responsible for over 2,000km of roads. If The Hills Shire is weakened by losing south of the M2 to Parramatta, this asset class alone will be difficult to maintain.
Hawkesbury Council's resources strategy also states the need to maintain 16 meters of road length per inhabitant compared to comparable figures of between 3 meters and 9 meters in neighboring councils. If all of Hills & Hawkesbury is merged, this new entity will have to maintain 8.1 meters of road length. This alone puts an additional burden on the residents of Hills, who currently maintain 5.3 meters of road length and must maintain 9.1 meters in the future.
Due to time constraints and lack of access to Hawkesbury Council's detailed inspection records, and based on Hills Shire Council's experience in funding its own backlog, it is believed that at least $20 million a year on top of current provisions will be required to be spent over the next 5 years to clear the backlog of Hawkesbury Council. In the absence of current data, these high-level projections are based on the approved FY 15/16 Long Term Plan (LTFP) for both Councils.
SS7 Information over last 5 years
MERGER PROPOSAL PART PARRAMATTA CITY COUNCIL, PART AUBURN CITY COUNCIL, PART THE HILLS SHIRE COUNCIL, PART HORNSBY
The Hills Shire Council at its regular meeting on 10th November 2015 considered a report on potential full amalgamations in our region. Hills Shire Council rated IPART as “adequate” but is surrounded by councils (Hawkesbury, Parramatta, Blacktown, Gosford and Hornsby) that were rated “inadequate”. The Hills Shire Council was in this situation and felt that the two most obvious mergers were Hornsby and Hawkesbury.
None of the Council's preferred outcomes are reflected in the Hawkesbury City Council and part of The Hills Shire Council merger proposal. Should this merger proposal proceed, The Hills Shire Council would prefer that the merger proposal with Hawkesbury not proceed. one). This conclusion is based on The Hills Shire Council contributing the higher operating profit of $19.6m. instead of the adjusted figure of $4.4 million.
It will also leave the proposed merger of the remainder of The Hills Shire with the Hawkesbury under resource for several years. The independent Hills Shire Council (excluding the area south of the M2) will have an Operating Deficit for at least the first 6 years. This will certainly affect the current level of services provided to Hills residents, but it is a better outcome than combining a weakened Hills Shire with the Hawkesbury.
An analysis of The Hills Shire Council's services was undertaken to determine the activities carried out south of the M2. As detailed below, The Hills Shire Council has the potential to lose m) of its operating surplus or m) of its operating income excluding capital grants and one-off income if suburbs south of the M2 are lost to the new Parramatta LGA. This information was previously reported based on FY 14/15 data). As can be seen from the table above, Hills Shire Council is projecting operating surpluses.
As can be seen from the above, the standalone Hills Shire forecast a surplus of $4.4 million in FY 16/17. If these revenues disappear, it will be difficult to continue to provide the residents of Hills with the same level of service. If this merger proposal goes through, it will take The Hills Shire Council at least more than 6 years to get back to surplus.
28,861 or 15.4% population
Almost 70% of The Hill's Shire footprint is rural and its urban footprint is contained with the remaining 30% in the south of the Shire. The minimum lot size for land zoned R2 Low Density Residential in Parramatta is 550m2 as opposed to 700m2 for land south of M2 in The Hills. It was the work of The Hills Shire Council, including the Council's former mayor, Councilor Jefferies, that led to a change that included the route via Carlingford.
Another option which is the current Hills Shire suburb minus south of the M2 with a future merger with Hawkesbury. Of key importance is the proposed change to the southern boundary of the Hills Shire north to the M2 motorway. The Hills Shire Council is one of the most successful councils and operates with twelve (12) councillors.
Hills Shire Council is one of the best performing councils in the state and would be considered a benchmark council by any measure. This merger proposal will weaken The Hills Shire and will weaken the proposed merger of Hawkesbury Council and Part of The Hills Shire Council as described in the financial impact statement in this report. The Hills Shire Council has drawn up two petitions regarding the proposal in an attempt to indicate the views of residents of The Hills, which would become part of the new Parramatta Council Area.
The eastern boundary of The Hills Shire may run from Thompson's Corner at West Pennant Hills, south along the Cumberland Highway to the junction of the M2 motorway, using the existing boundary. Beecroft south of the M2 is linked to Carlingford by Carlingford Court and the local North Carlingford town shops. The proposal by the Panel that that part of The Hills Shire Council be incorporated under the M2 at Parramatta provided an opportunity for a very different approach.
The boundary of the M2 and Windsor Road separates part of the suburb of Baulkham Hills from the rest of the suburb. The boundary of The Hills Shire Council continues through Oakville, McGraths Hill and into the township of Windsor only where it meets the Hawkesbury River. Dural has developed links through mainstream public transport and road corridors to areas of the Hills Shire as opposed to the Hornsby Shire areas.
The South Dural area will also benefit from the supply of the North Western Rail line, which is also largely within the boundaries of the Hills Shire Council. Amalgamations of whole councils are relatively less complex and The Hills Shire Council prefers to amalgamate the whole of The Hills Shire Council with Hawkesbury.
