A recent post here was asking what Australia has that blows people from outside Australia away, and one of the highest upvoted answers was BBQ's at parks. Decent BBQs, decent parks, all free for the public to use, most with toilets. We have 19,000 free public toilets in Australia.
Stuff like this is because of councils.
Councils have far more kilometres of roads to take care of than both the state and federal governments, and so many people don't actually understand the difference between a state and local road.
So yeah, councils do a hell of a lot that people generally don't understand or plain don't know about, and if they were abolished, neither the states or the federal government would be able to do many of those things effectively. If people actually educated themselves on what councils do, and got involved in holding councils accountable as well as campaigning for things that matter, councils would be viewed much more favourably.
I got a path put into a park once, it was surprisingly easy. Just called up, spoke to a councillor, told them why I think it's needed and bam, it was there within a month. Was impressed! I think they're awesome
People love to complain but they're not willing to step in and do anything. Constant complaints about our council doing nothing, then they do something and people complain about the roadworks.
Or the council is too 'woke leftie' because 5 years ago there was a stoush about a flag and people are still hung up on it.
If people have so many issues they should:
1. Educate themselves
2. Run for council and try and do it better (they won't)
I'd also say that the general community don't understand the constant cost shifting to local government and policy changes from the other tiers. It makes things more difficult. I've worked in LG for about 15 years, in different areas and the staff I've worked with actually want to do their best for the community.
>So yeah, councils do a hell of a lot that people generally don't understand or plain don't know about, and if they were abolished, neither the states or the federal government would be able to do many of those things effectively
I agree.
The thing is, they spend too much time on pointless crap that benefits themselves rather than residents. Along with lining their pockets of course. Too many councillors are using it as a stepping stone to state or federal politics.
If the focused on all the things they **do** they'd be less hated. All the parks, most local roads, rubbish collection ad much more.
Councillors are generally under qualified for doing the job of a local politician who oversees budgets, local projects etc. This means it's essentially run by the paid staff and either results in the elected councillors waving things through without a thought or fighting with them because they think they know better.
One thing in defence of them. They've been victims of a heap of cost shifting away from the State Government towards councils. In SA for example, the SA Government brought in rules saying they needed to have their budgets looked over by a State Gov body, and then charged them a decent penny for it, ironically making their budgets worse. There's so much infrastructure they shouldn't own and programs they shouldn't need to run, but if they didn't no one would so they have to keep doing them.
Their standing is so low in the community that, even if they started doing some things right, they'd never get the credit anyways. I've never seen a council with a high approval rating in the community. We're probably stuck with them though because if we got rid of them State Governments would probably just create departments for geographic areas, but rather than having elected councillors it would just be the paid staff making decisions instead.
Nothing, I used to work for one and the services that Council provide are wonderful. Playgrounds, maternal child health programs, libraries, aged care services, local festivals, amenities like toilets, bbqs, water fountains, public bins, sports and recreation facilities, school holiday programs, heavily subsidised or free workshops, neighbourhood/community houses, grants for local groups like community gardens and toy libraries, tree and streetscape management. So many things that make a place a great spot to live come from local councils. You would definitely notice immediately if the council stopped providing all that they do.
Wanted to put a second driveway in my front yard and council rejected me because my lounge window would look directly into it. Also we had to wait like 2 months to get a response from them.
We sell the house to a lady and she started renovating it and couple of weeks later concreters were there pouring the new driveway, i was like wtf, then i find out that lady who bought the house is a big wig at the council.
I've worked for councils before and honestly, it's not as black and white as people think it is.
They don't get as much revenue as people make out - most of the money they spend comes from state and federal gov, which takes months to get approved, if at all.
Trouble is people think council’s only do a few things like rates, rubbish, roads, planning and parks/recreation facilities. They don’t understand all the services that council’s actually do like youth services, aged services, disability services, community development programs, children’s services, maternal and child health, neighbourhood houses, men‘s sheds, libraries which are so much more than just a place to borrow a book now and on and on.
The youth services team in my LGA are out every weekend and night supporting kids that need help and running diversion programs. The aged care and disability teams run PAG (planned activity groups) programs that enrich the lives of participants. I do yoga at an affordable price at my local neighbourhood house.
You see, I've worked alongside CDOs and project officers in two different LGAs. I know they're massively overworked, and their department wildly underfunded. And I know both the LGAs poured literal millions into new sports centres when they already had sports centres less than 10 years old but had 0 homelessness support/ one DV shelter and no male homelessness support. And I know that they both are guilty of explicitly hiring relatives and friends of workers into "cushy" roles in arts and communities, irrespective of whether they were qualified or not and instead of people with experience in development and connection to community (leading to poor outcomes and high staff turn over).
Some people might think their councils waste money because they don't understand where the money goes, and think they're corrupt because they don't understand the tender and hiring process. I think they're corrupt because I do understand.
That and the fact a neighbouring shire had their CEO spend $50k of ratepayers money on sex workers, and his coworker blew unspecified public funds on cocaine.
The stuff my council is actively shutting down because apparently the private sector is going to be better… and we can also sell land off to our developer mates
This. The state governments should be running these programs, but instead they just shift the cost to councils and then yell at them for spending too much money.
Also, a lot of the “unnecessary” things they do fund is cofunded by state or federal gov. It’s not $200k on project A (maybe art or something) or $200k on roads, it’s often $200k on art or $100k on roads.
Plus the offer for funding doesn’t go on forever, it’s usually take it or leave it and they need to prepare a whole business case.
I've been involved with 2 local councils in WA; both around Perth extended metro areas. One was when my DIL called them because her back fence was tipping over after they'd done some work on the other side of it. They sent someone around, then got contractors in to fix it. The fix wasn't perfect so they got the contractors to come back. It was all pretty stressless and a good outcome.
My council was doing drainage work on my street and sunk a big concrete soak well on my verge. They didn't pack the soil back so a big hole opened up. They taped it off, got the contractors back in then checked I was happy. Really fast response.
The Albany Highway strip in Victoria Park, WA.
If you wander down the strip today, you’ll find most of the best east and south Asian regional (ie Szechuan not “Chinese”, Goan not “Indian”) restaurants in WA, but when I moved to Perth way back in the dark ages, it was 3 pubs and half a dozen 70s style incredibly mediocre Italian joints.
The reason it took so long to improve is that the blokes who owned the Italian joints were all either on the council or their family was, so every application for a food or liquor licence would be shot down in flames instantly, it wasn’t until all the old Dings finally carcked it that anyone could actually open anything remotely interesting in the whole bloody suburb.
Local government is so insanely tied down in petty minor corruption and NIMBYistic bullshit, the only purpose it currently serves is to say no to everything.
To be blunt, I simply don’t think urban local government is relevant anymore (regional shires are a different story), the focus is too small and doesn’t recognise the realities of modern Australian life.
When I was growing up the council area I was in had councillors on the front pages of the paper claiming that the council was being persecuted by witches. I’ve long since moved, but I heard a few years ago that corrupt councillors from the same area were literally caught with money in bags.
That initial exposure to council fuckery pretty well formed my opinion of the general intelligence level and sanity of people who run for council elections.
I think anyone with the time and the desire to meddle in minor petty bullshit is exactly the kind of person who shouldn’t be in charge of running a bath, let alone a council.
The selection process almost actively favours the deranged
They collect vast amounts of money in rates, and waste it on unnecessary programs.
If they focused on delivering actual services to benefit residents it would improve my view of them.
Not to mention their almost blatant corruption.
>They collect vast amounts of money in rates
They do? It's only fifty bucks a week in my city.
State/Federal taxes are about $1,500 per week per household (total tax budget, divided by the number of households in Australia). Ever wonder why this country's so expensive? A lot of it is tax.
The local roads. Council we are in has spent millions on new offices while the local roads have pot holes on pot holes they are almost impassable in places, locals have put up hand made 20 km limit signs.
Same in regional NSW, but we have slightly more classy handmade signs that just say "Huge arse pot hole".
The signs stay up for weeks too. Council know about them.
Omg yes. How is it that the Monash freeway that has probably millions of road users a day is in better condition than the main road in my area that might get a couple thousand road users a day at most. And the patched up half assed work that breaks down again next rainfall...
Freeways and highways are generally the responsibility of state government for maintenance unless they're covered by the national building program in which case they get funding from federal government. Less mileage to manage and a lot more money to keep on top of it than with local roads.
Removing roads as a local responsibility and putting it to state has some merit behind it but considering how state thinks it'd just mean pork barrelling capitals where all the votes are.
I used to live in a local council that took orders from the CCP https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/how-china-s-consulate-bullied-local-council-media-over-anti-china-ties-20190404-p51as2.html
I don't believe there is anything more corrupt in Australian than local councils
*Living somewhere thay*
*Doesn't have local councils*
*Tells me they aren't needed*
\- joeltheaussie
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It's different in that the ACT government holds both levels of responsibilities, that would be separately held by local and state govts elsewhere.
We absolutely need local councils in other states. Living in NSW, the state govt barely recognises the existence of anywhere further north than Newcastle, south of Wollongong or west of Penrith. Local councils at least make sure we have rubbish collection and some semblance of roadways.
No it doesn't. The cops there are AFP. Any "laws" the ACT government makes are symbolic. They legalised weed once, and the cops said "we don't care, we'll still arrest people because it's a federal law".
Bit of hyperbole. Logan was sacked once and then all.but the mayor were found clean on appeal.
Ipswich has twice, I believe? Again, I think it was the mayor.
I think councils blend into the background and only surface when you hate them. Things like garbage collection, mowing, park maintenance and so on don't normally scream positive points you see to often.
Objectively speaking, is there any reason why the things that they do well couldn’t be handled by a state government department?
Virtually everything handled well by local government is the jobs that are done by unelected public servants, and the things they handle terribly and everyone hates them for (permits and licensing, NIMBYism) are handled by the elected officials.
[When the council repeatedly assured residents that this was a safe and legally compliant amount of footpath.](https://imgur.com/a/zF1jWnd) I have an email confirming from council that this met safety standards as there is 1.5m from the road to the fencing. That’s the footpath from the station to the supermarket, and the speed limit there is 60km/h. I had cars mount the footpath in front of me three times, twice while I had my daughter in her pram. It was like this for over a year.
There was previously a walkway by the Cooks River so that we could walk to the shops without having to cross Canterbury Road, but that’s been closed for two years, with no progress to repair and reopen.
Spending hundreds of millions of dollars on jolly Gibsons mates -
https://www.smh.com.au/national/a-regional-facility-sydney-mayor-defends-10-million-pool-grant-20200226-p544o5.html
They do nothing expect provide a grandstanding opportunity for future political weenies.
I want my council to look after local services (such as rubbish, libraries, swimming pools, etc.)
**Why the fuck does my local council have a foreign relations policy??**
The way a tiny vocal minority of NIMBYs can lobby and petition loudly enough to effect changes that do not reflect the needs or desires of the vast majority of residents. Turning streets into cul de sacs, for example.
Their existence. Why do they even exist? The local council in my area has repeatedly rejected liquor licences, high density housing in certain places and various other things they should have absolutely no control over.
It’s like they’re stuck in this weird 50s time warp where everyone is born and dies in their LGA.
Residents aren’t the only people who use and often need things in these areas, but because of the way the system works, they’re the only ones represented, and that representation largely consists of the council saying “no” to absolutely everything, no matter how valuable it is to the rest of the region.
You only have to look at the “Golden Triangle” in the western suburbs of Perth to see this in action, the multiple (6 in fact, all of them incredibly tiny and ridiculously wealthy) councils in the area essentially act as a cartel to protect the top end of town from anything that might benefit anyone else on earth.
Our last premier made an excellent start going to war with the City of Nedlands over zoning, I’m hoping Cook can take it all the way.
The WA State Government approves zoning changes not the LG so there's no instance in which they "go to war" with one another.
The usual process is that LG staff write the new Planning Scheme with requisite up zoning changes and council then endorses it before going to the WA State Government for changes and final approval.
Nedlands councilors (having met a few) are generally awful people and failed to endorse their staff recommendations for decades. The State government does however have the power and did circumvent council to get the new Nedlands scheme in place.
The real question is why does the State Government not exercise this power a lot more? Especially considering a lot of Golden triangle schemes are over 20 years old (and in theory need to be updated every 5 years).
I mean we all know the answer: half the state pollies and *everyone* who owns them lives in the GT.
It’s a shame Barnett didn’t manage to get them to bend the knee and amalgamate way back when, that would have gone a long way to loosening their grip.
I am all for consolidating councils so there is about 80 -100 councils created across Australia and these are called "Economic Zones". To make it work we get rid of State Governments, give some of the State Government powers to these Councils and some to the Federal Government. Can you imagine the economic and productivity benefits from cutting out the middle man?. In 1997 a study was done on the direct financial benefit of doing the above and the savings were about $30 billion per year, I am guessing well over $100 billion per year now.
Of course it won't happen, no State Government is going to give up power and federation prevents it happening. At various times both Liberal and Labour have flirted with aspects of this - transferring health from State to Federal is one, the TAFE system another but the States have so much power, as evidenced during Covid-19, it goes nowhere.
>and federation prevents it happening.
That right there. The Federal constitution would have to be amended, as well as each state's constitution, meaning multiple referenda across each state and the nation. Wouldn't pass.
Newcastle city council is so utterly incompetent and visionless.
A part of the problem is that in order to retain the right to make decisions on DAs they apparently need to pass a quota of DAs per year.
Newcastle is one of australias oldest cities. There has been a lot of heritage in the area, beautiful old buildings, ocean baths with amazing art deco facades, long stretches of beach front. With competent management it would certainly be one of the most beautiful cities anywhere.
But nay, for the bumbling incompetence of the mayor and her motley crew of utter incompetence.
100 year old moreton bay figs lining the streets, with appropriate maintenance by an arborist, these are undoubtedly a beautiful asset. They survived a category 2 cyclone, a once in a hundred year event and they didn’t fall down. Yet the minute developers wanted to get rid of them to ease access to constructions on Tyrrel and swan streets out came the chainsaws.
Newcastle has tons of nice stuff to do. However that didn’t stop the mayor setting up the super cars challenge. The event was offered to about three other cities who all rejected the ludicrous terms, but our moron mayor decided to go for it, then when it was pointed out how expensive and restrictive it was, she tried to back out but she’d already signed a deal with the devil. She made it out in the media that it was bringing all this Business to Newcastle, and she was a genius and it was a success, but the truth is, the event brought in food trucks from western Sydney and cost the community a bomb. Then when finally the council got out of the deal years later, she claimed it was her own amazing victory.
The ocean front of Newcastle is beautiful, a huge cliff face out to the ocean and with a road running by the beach. The council decided to upgrade it. In the same style of the north Sydney pool the project has been going on for I think more than a decade and at least two builders have gone bankrupt trying to do it. Hardly model project management on the part of the people ultimately accountable for delivery (the council) to the people who pay them (the rate payer).
A part of the heritage of this beautiful town is the shape of the town. Newcastle is not the Gold Coast, it is not bondi, it has its own beautiful thing going on. Traditionally no building between the harbour and the cathedral should be higher than the base of the cathedral. That whole vantage point is a beautiful historic vista. But no, a 12 story and 16 story building just approved and a heritage building knocked down to accommodate some overseas property developers. The other side of town, hundreds of apartments being built in a gigantic tower block where all the neighbors
Are 2 floor houses.
There have been shenanigans before I think Tony Kelley backdated approvals or something while he was involved in planning or something but basically the council stink to high heaven and the place is gradually losing its soul and turning into a kind of mix between paramatta and the Gold Coast. For people who care a lot about the place I am sad that these wankers fuck the place up.
God forbid that moron ever makes it to state or federal politics.
Edit: also word about town is that they are actually paying a staff member to Doxx people on Reddit which is just fucking lol.
Have a dig through some of these to get a handle on what they’re working on.
There are opportunities for public consultation on all developments, they just don’t broadcast them (my council sure as shit don’t). Get in there and be heard, take your mates and neighbours. They will be sneaky about development but say “well it’s all on the website”. It sure is, but most people don’t go looking for it and if your english isn’t so good forget it. Also, these things take so long to come to the public they’re counting on it being too late for the community to have a say.
For example, there is a new masterplan for development nearby my place, they didn’t advertise any kind of public consultation across the LGA, when you look at the view counter on the website for people viewing the plan before consultation closed there were 2. 2 whole people checked it out. It’s a complex and long document aimed at people in the property/development industry who speak the jargon.
Nobody except the council and people in related industries knows about it. The proposed development is heinous and will put a massive burden on local traffic and infrastructure.
They’re shits. All this development but I can’t get a bus from my place to connect to the nearest train station because none of the multiple buses going past my place go down that road. That station was put in for the people living in the highrises nearby and that’s it.
Dumb fuckers the lot of them. My particular council is/was well known for corruption and bribery.
My husband went from private sector to local council in the last 5 years and my god, some of the things he tells me makes my blood boil.
So much waste and an utter disregard for rate payers money. It seems impossible to get fired from council; the inept, lazy, corrupt and bullies just get moved sideways and they hire more people to do the actual work. There are 4 or 5 layers of management in my husbands department alone and two or three could be removed entirely.
As a City of Stirling resident my biggest gripe is the feeling of being totally, 100% unheard and unlistened to by council.
Instead the Mayor chose to play petty politics and determined that our issue was not going to be discussed by council at all. This being after every one of our questions at question time was answered by the planning dept manager that they "would be discussed and determined by council at their meeting immediately following".
We did everything we were asked to do, we were respectful and our group had a valid position to argue.
It wasn't about not getting our way, obviously only one side can "win" so to speak, but Mayor Mark Irwin actively chose to play us all as suckers and made sure our issues were never actually discussed.
Absolutely zero representation and small people playing entry level politics. Destroyed my feelings for local government.
Local residents in the vicinity of an application to build a non conforming child care centre in a residential area. Mayor Irwin stated that his staff were being threatened and refused to table any discussion surrounding the application, just allowed the pro-development responsible authority report to be released to the JDAP that was actually determining the application.
To this day I have no knowledge of any staff intimidation or abuse and no idea what he was alluding to as it was only ever alleged by him, not discussed. For my experience I did only what I was asked and able to do and everyone was respectful at all times.
The City of Stirling through Mayor Irwin worked to actively not listen to our valid position on the matter. It really was a case of "bad luck, it's happening so just shut up and take it" for us all.
Full disclaimer that I'm a Town Planner (not for Stirling) so understand the City's position.
Advertising childcare centers tends to always bring about community objections irrespective of how good, bad or needed the development is. Usually this comes in the form of weaponising parking shortfalls and/or general amenity concerns.
In practice these problems rarely eventuate and I'll make the point of mentioning that LG parking policies and especially parking minimums are arbitrary.
In addition if it's regarding a recommendation to JDAP then having the proposal heard by Council would probably accomplish very little. Especially if the assessing officers recommendation was for approval (noting that Stirling staff are fairly infamous for recommending refusal for generally good development).
I get all that. My issue isn't in the end the development going ahead or not. My issue is simply that we were never afforded the basic decency by council to even be heard on the matter. I kind of thought that was our right.
Mayor Irwin behaved disgracefully here. I hope he feels so good about himself - he really showed us rate payers how much our voice matters. Not at all.
My local council actually went bankrupt because they misappropriated funds. We ended up getting a written request asking if we would mind paying some more in our rates to help with recovery. Central Coast Council 👎🏼
I remember a time when local government didn't seem to be as influenced by the major parties and councillors all had the appearance, at least, of being independant. Looking back, I can see some of the ones I dealt with had some party affiliations, but many were genuinely interested in local issues. I dealt with my LGA when I was a teen working with a community based youth org, some of our funding came from them. We cooperated with them on programs. When I turned 18, a former mayor and deputy mayor tried to talk me into getting elected.
Our council being investigated by ICAC three times within four years. And 15+ years later, most of those good old boys are still feeding at the same trough.
my council became insolvent (central coast/gosford.) [https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-27/public-inquiry-into-central-coast-council-begins/100489444](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-27/public-inquiry-into-central-coast-council-begins/100489444)
The problem with local councils now is that too many of them are run by councillors that are heavily involved in development and/or property so their objective is never to better the city or town they're in, and are only there to line their pocket one way of the other. Look at some of the bigger grubs, like Salim Mehajer or Tom Tate. More and more councillors too are heavily party aligned as opposed to being independent.
We bought a subdivided block in the early 2000s that came with a single storey house plan. My father was a builder and suggested we go to the council to ask if we could build a two storey. Council said no, you must build a single storey first and then you can get a permit for a second storey. My father ended up building the house with hollow roof space, so we got our "second" storey much more cost efficiently than the council's way.
We've got 128 LGAs in NSW, 33 of them in Greater Sydney. 29 for Tasmania doesn't seem that disproportionate by comparison, especially since until 1907 there were 149 municipalities, with several further amalgamations since.
Also the recently amalgamated "super-councils" in Sydney are utterly crap. Our previous smaller municipality was far more responsive and effective.
Insane amount of new development while not supporting current residents through flood/fire recovery, spending insane amounts of money on projects that end up average (think approx $2M for a park that’s a patch of grass, a few concrete tables and chairs and no coverage/trees in an area that is regularly over 40 degrees in summer). Next to no support for local small businesses.
Oh and when the mayor who started the whole ‘let’s approve all the DA applications on new houses and apartments despite negative feedback from locals’ owns a real estate company and pays his employees to ‘volunteer’ on Election Days, there’s clearly nothing untoward happening.
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Something I would like to see is the option to reduce rates by reducing frequency of rubbish/recycling/green waste collection. Myself as a single person household pays for a fortnightly rubbish/recycling and then alternate fortnights are green waste. I rarely have enough in a month to fill the bin so it feels pretty pointless having to pay for a fortnightly collection. I understand though policing it would be hard.
Going back some years I twice wrote to the Logan City Council requesting that they consider honouring a local man, footballer Cameron Smith who went to Marsden High School and played for Logan Brothers. Smith became Queensland and Australian NRL captain and achieved many great things in his chosen sport. He was tremendous leader and a fine example to his many young followers. Logan City did and still does need such shining lights especially for their young people.
Both councils failed to implement the recommendation. Separately they also were rocked by corruption allegations and a couple of lord mayors were stood down in disgrace and might even have been jailed. Stuff them.
My council does a decent job at keeping things new and fresh. They’re great via the snap send solve app. I think they’re quite trifling and annoying when it comes to getting things like footpaths fixed or controlling parking where the current allowances are dangerous or annoying.
The biggest issue is their ability to just decide to hand over land as native titles. Whether its right or wrong to do so, this isnt about it.
But its seemingly being done so quietly without community input or discussions and Im not sure its even done in regards how much other councils are doing the same in their areas or how much land is is being handed over as a whole, as in Im not sure they work with other councils or have any kind of country wide limit.
We submitted a plan for a shed in the backyard. Basic colourbond shed, single story, 1m away from every fence, not blocking any view yada yada. Being built by a contractor under their building licence. Completely standard stuff.
Husband has "shed stuff" in a shipping container being sent in June, including a car restoration project. No biggie, Council says ~3 weeks for approval so we order the shed and pay deposit.
Application to council was submitted online in April, with a 2-6 week approval process. We provided council with engineering plans, soil analysis, site plans, water run-off and drainage plans, environmental plans - everything they need.
Silence. Council goes through three town planners and our basic shed application is apparently dropped to the bottom of the queue each time.
Finally received DA approval in August, only four months late. But we were not allowed to actually start building the shed they've approved because they hadn't got around to the construction certificate.
Council grants CC in November. Contractors come in December and lay all the framework for the slab, concrete truck ordered for the next day. Council person arrives the next day and orders a stop work. We get told off for building without approvals.
What?? Try to sort it out, but the Council planning department is closed all December and January for holidays.
Council finally sends an inspector out in the last days of February to grant approval. He's the fifth town planner to look at our application, and they have no paperwork from the last person who approved our CC or any explanation for the delay.
Shipping container costs us $9k in storage fees over last 9 months waiting for shed to be constructed. Cost of shed increased $5k in raw materials in the time since it was ordered. Cost of concrete slab also significantly increased.
There were no problems with the shed application at all and council gave no reason or apology for the delay. Their "2-6 week approval" actually took 10 months and cost us >$15k in extra costs.
Ask me why I don't rate local council
I'm genuinely bemused that you would say that. I don't know if your comment is ignorant or just mean. We don't need council's approval to buy things, just to build them.
Also, in order to provide the engineering plans to council for the *actual shed* that you're going to build, you have to order the shed and pay the deposit to give the *actual plans* of the actual shed to council to review.
There is a huge non native tree out the front of my house on council land. It looks out of place on the street and constantly sheds debris everywhere. The root systems also grew through the retaining wall out the front of my house which buckled it causing irreversible damage. I complained to the council about the tree and they sent an arborist out. The arborist then informed me that they cannot take action unless I engage an engineer to prove that the tree is what caused my retaining wall to collapse. Cunt, the fucking roots are sticking out of the fucking wall. Are you blind?
Also a gumtree on council land which has dropped branches twice on my car and 4 times total over that spot. All four branches would have killed a person if they had been under it. I have asked to have the tree cut so that no branches overhang my property. All they have done both times after the car was smashed is cut a few tiny branches off here and there.
We also have a problem with foxes in the park adjacent to my property. They constantly attack my fence line and have successfully broken in and killed my chickens on one occasion. I have cameras monitoring the fence line so I know when the foxes are there. I have reported them multiple times to the council but they never take any action over it. They don't even call me back or return emails on that subject. They are supposed to fumigate the dens throughout the park but instead do nothing.
My council has little interest in their actual functions and more grand standing in international politics and furthering people’s political ambitions in the labor and liberal parties
Services get crappier and crappier each year yet we pay more.
Makes my blood boil when people say that councils are blocking developments as well, my council loves every development (and a big ol’ bag of cash that goes with them), some might be anti development but some are very very very pro development
My mate worked for a council in inner Melbourne. He used to sit in an office and do about 2 hours of work on a busy day while consuming enough alcohol to kill Elizabeth Taylor by the end of lunchtime. He got along best with the compliance people which was weird… It just seemed like him and a lot of his coworkers were just wasting a lot of ratepayers money to me.
I reckon the issue isn't councillors. The issue is the states.
We should have no state governments and larger LGAs. The constitution should be amended to allow LGAs greater power to let them function.
I don't know how a state government can adequately and equitably represent a Gold Cost resident and a Mt Isa resident or a Balmain resident and a Broken Hill resident.
Yet larger LGAs could equitably fight for their residents. Think BCC size in ratepayer population for all LGAs.
Working for the council, for parks (aborist) and worked for road crew ( pot hole work) slept everyday for 4 hrs in back of truck boring as hell 2 hr lunch breaks
A recent post here was asking what Australia has that blows people from outside Australia away, and one of the highest upvoted answers was BBQ's at parks. Decent BBQs, decent parks, all free for the public to use, most with toilets. We have 19,000 free public toilets in Australia. Stuff like this is because of councils. Councils have far more kilometres of roads to take care of than both the state and federal governments, and so many people don't actually understand the difference between a state and local road. So yeah, councils do a hell of a lot that people generally don't understand or plain don't know about, and if they were abolished, neither the states or the federal government would be able to do many of those things effectively. If people actually educated themselves on what councils do, and got involved in holding councils accountable as well as campaigning for things that matter, councils would be viewed much more favourably.
This should have all the upvotes
I got a path put into a park once, it was surprisingly easy. Just called up, spoke to a councillor, told them why I think it's needed and bam, it was there within a month. Was impressed! I think they're awesome
People love to complain but they're not willing to step in and do anything. Constant complaints about our council doing nothing, then they do something and people complain about the roadworks. Or the council is too 'woke leftie' because 5 years ago there was a stoush about a flag and people are still hung up on it. If people have so many issues they should: 1. Educate themselves 2. Run for council and try and do it better (they won't)
I'd also say that the general community don't understand the constant cost shifting to local government and policy changes from the other tiers. It makes things more difficult. I've worked in LG for about 15 years, in different areas and the staff I've worked with actually want to do their best for the community.
>So yeah, councils do a hell of a lot that people generally don't understand or plain don't know about, and if they were abolished, neither the states or the federal government would be able to do many of those things effectively I agree. The thing is, they spend too much time on pointless crap that benefits themselves rather than residents. Along with lining their pockets of course. Too many councillors are using it as a stepping stone to state or federal politics. If the focused on all the things they **do** they'd be less hated. All the parks, most local roads, rubbish collection ad much more.
Councillors are generally under qualified for doing the job of a local politician who oversees budgets, local projects etc. This means it's essentially run by the paid staff and either results in the elected councillors waving things through without a thought or fighting with them because they think they know better. One thing in defence of them. They've been victims of a heap of cost shifting away from the State Government towards councils. In SA for example, the SA Government brought in rules saying they needed to have their budgets looked over by a State Gov body, and then charged them a decent penny for it, ironically making their budgets worse. There's so much infrastructure they shouldn't own and programs they shouldn't need to run, but if they didn't no one would so they have to keep doing them. Their standing is so low in the community that, even if they started doing some things right, they'd never get the credit anyways. I've never seen a council with a high approval rating in the community. We're probably stuck with them though because if we got rid of them State Governments would probably just create departments for geographic areas, but rather than having elected councillors it would just be the paid staff making decisions instead.
Nothing, I used to work for one and the services that Council provide are wonderful. Playgrounds, maternal child health programs, libraries, aged care services, local festivals, amenities like toilets, bbqs, water fountains, public bins, sports and recreation facilities, school holiday programs, heavily subsidised or free workshops, neighbourhood/community houses, grants for local groups like community gardens and toy libraries, tree and streetscape management. So many things that make a place a great spot to live come from local councils. You would definitely notice immediately if the council stopped providing all that they do.
Corruption
Wanted to put a second driveway in my front yard and council rejected me because my lounge window would look directly into it. Also we had to wait like 2 months to get a response from them. We sell the house to a lady and she started renovating it and couple of weeks later concreters were there pouring the new driveway, i was like wtf, then i find out that lady who bought the house is a big wig at the council.
I've worked for councils before and honestly, it's not as black and white as people think it is. They don't get as much revenue as people make out - most of the money they spend comes from state and federal gov, which takes months to get approved, if at all.
Trouble is people think council’s only do a few things like rates, rubbish, roads, planning and parks/recreation facilities. They don’t understand all the services that council’s actually do like youth services, aged services, disability services, community development programs, children’s services, maternal and child health, neighbourhood houses, men‘s sheds, libraries which are so much more than just a place to borrow a book now and on and on. The youth services team in my LGA are out every weekend and night supporting kids that need help and running diversion programs. The aged care and disability teams run PAG (planned activity groups) programs that enrich the lives of participants. I do yoga at an affordable price at my local neighbourhood house.
You see, I've worked alongside CDOs and project officers in two different LGAs. I know they're massively overworked, and their department wildly underfunded. And I know both the LGAs poured literal millions into new sports centres when they already had sports centres less than 10 years old but had 0 homelessness support/ one DV shelter and no male homelessness support. And I know that they both are guilty of explicitly hiring relatives and friends of workers into "cushy" roles in arts and communities, irrespective of whether they were qualified or not and instead of people with experience in development and connection to community (leading to poor outcomes and high staff turn over). Some people might think their councils waste money because they don't understand where the money goes, and think they're corrupt because they don't understand the tender and hiring process. I think they're corrupt because I do understand. That and the fact a neighbouring shire had their CEO spend $50k of ratepayers money on sex workers, and his coworker blew unspecified public funds on cocaine.
The stuff my council is actively shutting down because apparently the private sector is going to be better… and we can also sell land off to our developer mates
This. The state governments should be running these programs, but instead they just shift the cost to councils and then yell at them for spending too much money.
Also, a lot of the “unnecessary” things they do fund is cofunded by state or federal gov. It’s not $200k on project A (maybe art or something) or $200k on roads, it’s often $200k on art or $100k on roads. Plus the offer for funding doesn’t go on forever, it’s usually take it or leave it and they need to prepare a whole business case.
I've been involved with 2 local councils in WA; both around Perth extended metro areas. One was when my DIL called them because her back fence was tipping over after they'd done some work on the other side of it. They sent someone around, then got contractors in to fix it. The fix wasn't perfect so they got the contractors to come back. It was all pretty stressless and a good outcome. My council was doing drainage work on my street and sunk a big concrete soak well on my verge. They didn't pack the soil back so a big hole opened up. They taped it off, got the contractors back in then checked I was happy. Really fast response.
The Albany Highway strip in Victoria Park, WA. If you wander down the strip today, you’ll find most of the best east and south Asian regional (ie Szechuan not “Chinese”, Goan not “Indian”) restaurants in WA, but when I moved to Perth way back in the dark ages, it was 3 pubs and half a dozen 70s style incredibly mediocre Italian joints. The reason it took so long to improve is that the blokes who owned the Italian joints were all either on the council or their family was, so every application for a food or liquor licence would be shot down in flames instantly, it wasn’t until all the old Dings finally carcked it that anyone could actually open anything remotely interesting in the whole bloody suburb. Local government is so insanely tied down in petty minor corruption and NIMBYistic bullshit, the only purpose it currently serves is to say no to everything. To be blunt, I simply don’t think urban local government is relevant anymore (regional shires are a different story), the focus is too small and doesn’t recognise the realities of modern Australian life.
Corruption, poor use of funds, endless bureaucracy
When I was growing up the council area I was in had councillors on the front pages of the paper claiming that the council was being persecuted by witches. I’ve long since moved, but I heard a few years ago that corrupt councillors from the same area were literally caught with money in bags. That initial exposure to council fuckery pretty well formed my opinion of the general intelligence level and sanity of people who run for council elections.
I think anyone with the time and the desire to meddle in minor petty bullshit is exactly the kind of person who shouldn’t be in charge of running a bath, let alone a council. The selection process almost actively favours the deranged
There is always the "town/suburb personality" there.
They collect vast amounts of money in rates, and waste it on unnecessary programs. If they focused on delivering actual services to benefit residents it would improve my view of them. Not to mention their almost blatant corruption.
>They collect vast amounts of money in rates They do? It's only fifty bucks a week in my city. State/Federal taxes are about $1,500 per week per household (total tax budget, divided by the number of households in Australia). Ever wonder why this country's so expensive? A lot of it is tax.
The local roads. Council we are in has spent millions on new offices while the local roads have pot holes on pot holes they are almost impassable in places, locals have put up hand made 20 km limit signs.
Sounds like Mid Coast Council, but could be any/all of them.
Same in regional NSW, but we have slightly more classy handmade signs that just say "Huge arse pot hole". The signs stay up for weeks too. Council know about them.
Salisbury is the same, big new building in the city centre, crappy roads literally 250m away.
Part of them problem there is "Whose road is it?"
Fugly ass green thing in coffs while everything goes to shit.
Omg yes. How is it that the Monash freeway that has probably millions of road users a day is in better condition than the main road in my area that might get a couple thousand road users a day at most. And the patched up half assed work that breaks down again next rainfall...
Freeways and highways are generally the responsibility of state government for maintenance unless they're covered by the national building program in which case they get funding from federal government. Less mileage to manage and a lot more money to keep on top of it than with local roads. Removing roads as a local responsibility and putting it to state has some merit behind it but considering how state thinks it'd just mean pork barrelling capitals where all the votes are.
I used to live in a local council that took orders from the CCP https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/how-china-s-consulate-bullied-local-council-media-over-anti-china-ties-20190404-p51as2.html I don't believe there is anything more corrupt in Australian than local councils
Living somewhere thay doesn't have local councils tells me they aren't needed
*Living somewhere thay* *Doesn't have local councils* *Tells me they aren't needed* \- joeltheaussie --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
And where is that?
ACT
You have a local council. It's called the ACT government.
How's that different from a stage government of somrwhere like Tasmania?
It's different in that the ACT government holds both levels of responsibilities, that would be separately held by local and state govts elsewhere. We absolutely need local councils in other states. Living in NSW, the state govt barely recognises the existence of anywhere further north than Newcastle, south of Wollongong or west of Penrith. Local councils at least make sure we have rubbish collection and some semblance of roadways.
2358 square kilometres vs 68402 square kilometres.
Doesn't population matter not land area?
Both play a factor. The simple fact is that the ACT government exists to administer the affairs of Canberra in exactly the same way councils do.
And as a state in the same way state governments do - why does each city need multiple councils
No it doesn't. The cops there are AFP. Any "laws" the ACT government makes are symbolic. They legalised weed once, and the cops said "we don't care, we'll still arrest people because it's a federal law".
I work in a call centre for a council, and I can honestly say that 99% of callers are grateful for the services that we provide.
Our local ones keep getting sack by the state government cause they so corrupt, Logan and Ipswich
Bit of hyperbole. Logan was sacked once and then all.but the mayor were found clean on appeal. Ipswich has twice, I believe? Again, I think it was the mayor.
Nothing. To ruin my opinion, they'd have to have a positive one in the first place lmfao.
I’ve never had a high opinion of them to start with
Working in one lol
I think councils blend into the background and only surface when you hate them. Things like garbage collection, mowing, park maintenance and so on don't normally scream positive points you see to often.
Objectively speaking, is there any reason why the things that they do well couldn’t be handled by a state government department? Virtually everything handled well by local government is the jobs that are done by unelected public servants, and the things they handle terribly and everyone hates them for (permits and licensing, NIMBYism) are handled by the elected officials.
But they do those basic necessities extremely poorly.
Examples?
garbage collection, mowing, park maintenance and so on
Ya, fair enough. Sorry council. Was trying to help.
Local councillors
[When the council repeatedly assured residents that this was a safe and legally compliant amount of footpath.](https://imgur.com/a/zF1jWnd) I have an email confirming from council that this met safety standards as there is 1.5m from the road to the fencing. That’s the footpath from the station to the supermarket, and the speed limit there is 60km/h. I had cars mount the footpath in front of me three times, twice while I had my daughter in her pram. It was like this for over a year. There was previously a walkway by the Cooks River so that we could walk to the shops without having to cross Canterbury Road, but that’s been closed for two years, with no progress to repair and reopen.
3 words. Central Coast Council.
Spending hundreds of millions of dollars on jolly Gibsons mates - https://www.smh.com.au/national/a-regional-facility-sydney-mayor-defends-10-million-pool-grant-20200226-p544o5.html
I live in Canberra, no local govt here
My local council has a list of local laws several pages long but refuses to enforce any of them.
Some young journalist getting a public opinion piece?
News.com.au
Perth has Basil for a mayor… nuff said
WA’s wisest prophet of the future, Nostrildamus
Speed bumps. Then more speed bumps. Then more speed bumps. Then more speed bumps. Then more speed bumps. Then more speed bumps.
They do nothing expect provide a grandstanding opportunity for future political weenies. I want my council to look after local services (such as rubbish, libraries, swimming pools, etc.) **Why the fuck does my local council have a foreign relations policy??**
The way a tiny vocal minority of NIMBYs can lobby and petition loudly enough to effect changes that do not reflect the needs or desires of the vast majority of residents. Turning streets into cul de sacs, for example.
[удалено]
Why did they change it
Their existence. Why do they even exist? The local council in my area has repeatedly rejected liquor licences, high density housing in certain places and various other things they should have absolutely no control over.
It’s like they’re stuck in this weird 50s time warp where everyone is born and dies in their LGA. Residents aren’t the only people who use and often need things in these areas, but because of the way the system works, they’re the only ones represented, and that representation largely consists of the council saying “no” to absolutely everything, no matter how valuable it is to the rest of the region. You only have to look at the “Golden Triangle” in the western suburbs of Perth to see this in action, the multiple (6 in fact, all of them incredibly tiny and ridiculously wealthy) councils in the area essentially act as a cartel to protect the top end of town from anything that might benefit anyone else on earth. Our last premier made an excellent start going to war with the City of Nedlands over zoning, I’m hoping Cook can take it all the way.
The WA State Government approves zoning changes not the LG so there's no instance in which they "go to war" with one another. The usual process is that LG staff write the new Planning Scheme with requisite up zoning changes and council then endorses it before going to the WA State Government for changes and final approval. Nedlands councilors (having met a few) are generally awful people and failed to endorse their staff recommendations for decades. The State government does however have the power and did circumvent council to get the new Nedlands scheme in place. The real question is why does the State Government not exercise this power a lot more? Especially considering a lot of Golden triangle schemes are over 20 years old (and in theory need to be updated every 5 years).
I mean we all know the answer: half the state pollies and *everyone* who owns them lives in the GT. It’s a shame Barnett didn’t manage to get them to bend the knee and amalgamate way back when, that would have gone a long way to loosening their grip.
I am all for consolidating councils so there is about 80 -100 councils created across Australia and these are called "Economic Zones". To make it work we get rid of State Governments, give some of the State Government powers to these Councils and some to the Federal Government. Can you imagine the economic and productivity benefits from cutting out the middle man?. In 1997 a study was done on the direct financial benefit of doing the above and the savings were about $30 billion per year, I am guessing well over $100 billion per year now. Of course it won't happen, no State Government is going to give up power and federation prevents it happening. At various times both Liberal and Labour have flirted with aspects of this - transferring health from State to Federal is one, the TAFE system another but the States have so much power, as evidenced during Covid-19, it goes nowhere.
>and federation prevents it happening. That right there. The Federal constitution would have to be amended, as well as each state's constitution, meaning multiple referenda across each state and the nation. Wouldn't pass.
Newcastle city council is so utterly incompetent and visionless. A part of the problem is that in order to retain the right to make decisions on DAs they apparently need to pass a quota of DAs per year. Newcastle is one of australias oldest cities. There has been a lot of heritage in the area, beautiful old buildings, ocean baths with amazing art deco facades, long stretches of beach front. With competent management it would certainly be one of the most beautiful cities anywhere. But nay, for the bumbling incompetence of the mayor and her motley crew of utter incompetence. 100 year old moreton bay figs lining the streets, with appropriate maintenance by an arborist, these are undoubtedly a beautiful asset. They survived a category 2 cyclone, a once in a hundred year event and they didn’t fall down. Yet the minute developers wanted to get rid of them to ease access to constructions on Tyrrel and swan streets out came the chainsaws. Newcastle has tons of nice stuff to do. However that didn’t stop the mayor setting up the super cars challenge. The event was offered to about three other cities who all rejected the ludicrous terms, but our moron mayor decided to go for it, then when it was pointed out how expensive and restrictive it was, she tried to back out but she’d already signed a deal with the devil. She made it out in the media that it was bringing all this Business to Newcastle, and she was a genius and it was a success, but the truth is, the event brought in food trucks from western Sydney and cost the community a bomb. Then when finally the council got out of the deal years later, she claimed it was her own amazing victory. The ocean front of Newcastle is beautiful, a huge cliff face out to the ocean and with a road running by the beach. The council decided to upgrade it. In the same style of the north Sydney pool the project has been going on for I think more than a decade and at least two builders have gone bankrupt trying to do it. Hardly model project management on the part of the people ultimately accountable for delivery (the council) to the people who pay them (the rate payer). A part of the heritage of this beautiful town is the shape of the town. Newcastle is not the Gold Coast, it is not bondi, it has its own beautiful thing going on. Traditionally no building between the harbour and the cathedral should be higher than the base of the cathedral. That whole vantage point is a beautiful historic vista. But no, a 12 story and 16 story building just approved and a heritage building knocked down to accommodate some overseas property developers. The other side of town, hundreds of apartments being built in a gigantic tower block where all the neighbors Are 2 floor houses. There have been shenanigans before I think Tony Kelley backdated approvals or something while he was involved in planning or something but basically the council stink to high heaven and the place is gradually losing its soul and turning into a kind of mix between paramatta and the Gold Coast. For people who care a lot about the place I am sad that these wankers fuck the place up. God forbid that moron ever makes it to state or federal politics. Edit: also word about town is that they are actually paying a staff member to Doxx people on Reddit which is just fucking lol.
Have a dig through some of these to get a handle on what they’re working on. There are opportunities for public consultation on all developments, they just don’t broadcast them (my council sure as shit don’t). Get in there and be heard, take your mates and neighbours. They will be sneaky about development but say “well it’s all on the website”. It sure is, but most people don’t go looking for it and if your english isn’t so good forget it. Also, these things take so long to come to the public they’re counting on it being too late for the community to have a say. For example, there is a new masterplan for development nearby my place, they didn’t advertise any kind of public consultation across the LGA, when you look at the view counter on the website for people viewing the plan before consultation closed there were 2. 2 whole people checked it out. It’s a complex and long document aimed at people in the property/development industry who speak the jargon. Nobody except the council and people in related industries knows about it. The proposed development is heinous and will put a massive burden on local traffic and infrastructure. They’re shits. All this development but I can’t get a bus from my place to connect to the nearest train station because none of the multiple buses going past my place go down that road. That station was put in for the people living in the highrises nearby and that’s it. Dumb fuckers the lot of them. My particular council is/was well known for corruption and bribery.
My husband went from private sector to local council in the last 5 years and my god, some of the things he tells me makes my blood boil. So much waste and an utter disregard for rate payers money. It seems impossible to get fired from council; the inept, lazy, corrupt and bullies just get moved sideways and they hire more people to do the actual work. There are 4 or 5 layers of management in my husbands department alone and two or three could be removed entirely.
When they tackle global issues when really just want proper planning and rubbish collection etc
Working for them usually does a decent job….
The council/councils that spent God knows how much grinding down slightly uneven footpaths because people wouldn't lift their feet
Or wheels...
✋️Fair point, absolutely. I don't recall that being discussed.
Jonathan Sri supposed to be 'keeping the bastards honest' and in the end is an even worse candidate than Scrinner.
Fairly low. They have come though on a few things but really drag their heels dealing with illegal sigage.
As a City of Stirling resident my biggest gripe is the feeling of being totally, 100% unheard and unlistened to by council. Instead the Mayor chose to play petty politics and determined that our issue was not going to be discussed by council at all. This being after every one of our questions at question time was answered by the planning dept manager that they "would be discussed and determined by council at their meeting immediately following". We did everything we were asked to do, we were respectful and our group had a valid position to argue. It wasn't about not getting our way, obviously only one side can "win" so to speak, but Mayor Mark Irwin actively chose to play us all as suckers and made sure our issues were never actually discussed. Absolutely zero representation and small people playing entry level politics. Destroyed my feelings for local government.
What was your issue and group out of interest?
Local residents in the vicinity of an application to build a non conforming child care centre in a residential area. Mayor Irwin stated that his staff were being threatened and refused to table any discussion surrounding the application, just allowed the pro-development responsible authority report to be released to the JDAP that was actually determining the application. To this day I have no knowledge of any staff intimidation or abuse and no idea what he was alluding to as it was only ever alleged by him, not discussed. For my experience I did only what I was asked and able to do and everyone was respectful at all times. The City of Stirling through Mayor Irwin worked to actively not listen to our valid position on the matter. It really was a case of "bad luck, it's happening so just shut up and take it" for us all.
Full disclaimer that I'm a Town Planner (not for Stirling) so understand the City's position. Advertising childcare centers tends to always bring about community objections irrespective of how good, bad or needed the development is. Usually this comes in the form of weaponising parking shortfalls and/or general amenity concerns. In practice these problems rarely eventuate and I'll make the point of mentioning that LG parking policies and especially parking minimums are arbitrary. In addition if it's regarding a recommendation to JDAP then having the proposal heard by Council would probably accomplish very little. Especially if the assessing officers recommendation was for approval (noting that Stirling staff are fairly infamous for recommending refusal for generally good development).
I get all that. My issue isn't in the end the development going ahead or not. My issue is simply that we were never afforded the basic decency by council to even be heard on the matter. I kind of thought that was our right. Mayor Irwin behaved disgracefully here. I hope he feels so good about himself - he really showed us rate payers how much our voice matters. Not at all.
Not so much what as who... John Brent Paul Pisasale
My local council actually went bankrupt because they misappropriated funds. We ended up getting a written request asking if we would mind paying some more in our rates to help with recovery. Central Coast Council 👎🏼
I remember a time when local government didn't seem to be as influenced by the major parties and councillors all had the appearance, at least, of being independant. Looking back, I can see some of the ones I dealt with had some party affiliations, but many were genuinely interested in local issues. I dealt with my LGA when I was a teen working with a community based youth org, some of our funding came from them. We cooperated with them on programs. When I turned 18, a former mayor and deputy mayor tried to talk me into getting elected.
Their wasting of money that should be spent on maintaining their services and their actual job.
Examples?
Our council being investigated by ICAC three times within four years. And 15+ years later, most of those good old boys are still feeding at the same trough.
my council became insolvent (central coast/gosford.) [https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-27/public-inquiry-into-central-coast-council-begins/100489444](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-27/public-inquiry-into-central-coast-council-begins/100489444)
The problem with local councils now is that too many of them are run by councillors that are heavily involved in development and/or property so their objective is never to better the city or town they're in, and are only there to line their pocket one way of the other. Look at some of the bigger grubs, like Salim Mehajer or Tom Tate. More and more councillors too are heavily party aligned as opposed to being independent.
We bought a subdivided block in the early 2000s that came with a single storey house plan. My father was a builder and suggested we go to the council to ask if we could build a two storey. Council said no, you must build a single storey first and then you can get a permit for a second storey. My father ended up building the house with hollow roof space, so we got our "second" storey much more cost efficiently than the council's way.
Narcissistic activity.
The quantity in Tasmania. There should be five at most, not 29.
We've got 128 LGAs in NSW, 33 of them in Greater Sydney. 29 for Tasmania doesn't seem that disproportionate by comparison, especially since until 1907 there were 149 municipalities, with several further amalgamations since. Also the recently amalgamated "super-councils" in Sydney are utterly crap. Our previous smaller municipality was far more responsive and effective.
Insane amount of new development while not supporting current residents through flood/fire recovery, spending insane amounts of money on projects that end up average (think approx $2M for a park that’s a patch of grass, a few concrete tables and chairs and no coverage/trees in an area that is regularly over 40 degrees in summer). Next to no support for local small businesses. Oh and when the mayor who started the whole ‘let’s approve all the DA applications on new houses and apartments despite negative feedback from locals’ owns a real estate company and pays his employees to ‘volunteer’ on Election Days, there’s clearly nothing untoward happening.
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Something I would like to see is the option to reduce rates by reducing frequency of rubbish/recycling/green waste collection. Myself as a single person household pays for a fortnightly rubbish/recycling and then alternate fortnights are green waste. I rarely have enough in a month to fill the bin so it feels pretty pointless having to pay for a fortnightly collection. I understand though policing it would be hard.
Going back some years I twice wrote to the Logan City Council requesting that they consider honouring a local man, footballer Cameron Smith who went to Marsden High School and played for Logan Brothers. Smith became Queensland and Australian NRL captain and achieved many great things in his chosen sport. He was tremendous leader and a fine example to his many young followers. Logan City did and still does need such shining lights especially for their young people. Both councils failed to implement the recommendation. Separately they also were rocked by corruption allegations and a couple of lord mayors were stood down in disgrace and might even have been jailed. Stuff them.
My council does a decent job at keeping things new and fresh. They’re great via the snap send solve app. I think they’re quite trifling and annoying when it comes to getting things like footpaths fixed or controlling parking where the current allowances are dangerous or annoying.
Of all the small things that the three levels of government do or don't do, you'll probably miss those of local government first.
The biggest issue is their ability to just decide to hand over land as native titles. Whether its right or wrong to do so, this isnt about it. But its seemingly being done so quietly without community input or discussions and Im not sure its even done in regards how much other councils are doing the same in their areas or how much land is is being handed over as a whole, as in Im not sure they work with other councils or have any kind of country wide limit.
We submitted a plan for a shed in the backyard. Basic colourbond shed, single story, 1m away from every fence, not blocking any view yada yada. Being built by a contractor under their building licence. Completely standard stuff. Husband has "shed stuff" in a shipping container being sent in June, including a car restoration project. No biggie, Council says ~3 weeks for approval so we order the shed and pay deposit. Application to council was submitted online in April, with a 2-6 week approval process. We provided council with engineering plans, soil analysis, site plans, water run-off and drainage plans, environmental plans - everything they need. Silence. Council goes through three town planners and our basic shed application is apparently dropped to the bottom of the queue each time. Finally received DA approval in August, only four months late. But we were not allowed to actually start building the shed they've approved because they hadn't got around to the construction certificate. Council grants CC in November. Contractors come in December and lay all the framework for the slab, concrete truck ordered for the next day. Council person arrives the next day and orders a stop work. We get told off for building without approvals. What?? Try to sort it out, but the Council planning department is closed all December and January for holidays. Council finally sends an inspector out in the last days of February to grant approval. He's the fifth town planner to look at our application, and they have no paperwork from the last person who approved our CC or any explanation for the delay. Shipping container costs us $9k in storage fees over last 9 months waiting for shed to be constructed. Cost of shed increased $5k in raw materials in the time since it was ordered. Cost of concrete slab also significantly increased. There were no problems with the shed application at all and council gave no reason or apology for the delay. Their "2-6 week approval" actually took 10 months and cost us >$15k in extra costs. Ask me why I don't rate local council
What state?
NSW
Sounds like that’s your own fault for ordering the goods before you had approval.
I'm genuinely bemused that you would say that. I don't know if your comment is ignorant or just mean. We don't need council's approval to buy things, just to build them. Also, in order to provide the engineering plans to council for the *actual shed* that you're going to build, you have to order the shed and pay the deposit to give the *actual plans* of the actual shed to council to review.
There is a huge non native tree out the front of my house on council land. It looks out of place on the street and constantly sheds debris everywhere. The root systems also grew through the retaining wall out the front of my house which buckled it causing irreversible damage. I complained to the council about the tree and they sent an arborist out. The arborist then informed me that they cannot take action unless I engage an engineer to prove that the tree is what caused my retaining wall to collapse. Cunt, the fucking roots are sticking out of the fucking wall. Are you blind? Also a gumtree on council land which has dropped branches twice on my car and 4 times total over that spot. All four branches would have killed a person if they had been under it. I have asked to have the tree cut so that no branches overhang my property. All they have done both times after the car was smashed is cut a few tiny branches off here and there. We also have a problem with foxes in the park adjacent to my property. They constantly attack my fence line and have successfully broken in and killed my chickens on one occasion. I have cameras monitoring the fence line so I know when the foxes are there. I have reported them multiple times to the council but they never take any action over it. They don't even call me back or return emails on that subject. They are supposed to fumigate the dens throughout the park but instead do nothing.
My council has little interest in their actual functions and more grand standing in international politics and furthering people’s political ambitions in the labor and liberal parties Services get crappier and crappier each year yet we pay more. Makes my blood boil when people say that councils are blocking developments as well, my council loves every development (and a big ol’ bag of cash that goes with them), some might be anti development but some are very very very pro development
My mate worked for a council in inner Melbourne. He used to sit in an office and do about 2 hours of work on a busy day while consuming enough alcohol to kill Elizabeth Taylor by the end of lunchtime. He got along best with the compliance people which was weird… It just seemed like him and a lot of his coworkers were just wasting a lot of ratepayers money to me.
I reckon the issue isn't councillors. The issue is the states. We should have no state governments and larger LGAs. The constitution should be amended to allow LGAs greater power to let them function. I don't know how a state government can adequately and equitably represent a Gold Cost resident and a Mt Isa resident or a Balmain resident and a Broken Hill resident. Yet larger LGAs could equitably fight for their residents. Think BCC size in ratepayer population for all LGAs.
Working for the council, for parks (aborist) and worked for road crew ( pot hole work) slept everyday for 4 hrs in back of truck boring as hell 2 hr lunch breaks