Apathy abounds
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A survey commissioned by the Independent Local Government Review Panel in August 2013 (conducted by IRIS in the Hunter and Sydney regions) resulted as follows:
“Amalgamation: Overall there is low agreement amongst both Sydney and the Hunter’s residents with regards to council amalgamating with a neighbouring council.
Overall half of all residents from both areas agree highly with the statement, ‘Repre-
sentation for local residents in an amalgamated council will be reduced’.
Results show that residents are split with regards to how they feel with the statement ‘Larger local councils could deliver better service for residents and communities’.
On the whole, there are more residents that agree highly with the statement ‘A larger council could save money’, than those that disagree with it.”
About 1000 people, said to be over 18 and residents in the area for months, took part in a telephone survey.
It had very ambiguous findings since most of those surveyed admitted that they knew “not much” about how local councils operated, and only one in 10 had actually made contact with their council in the previous 12 months.
Even fewer had made contact with the local councillors.
Coral Anderson, Batehaven