Residents can have their say now by forwarding their views to their own local government to help it prepare its submission to the Local Government Advisory Board.
Does the Department (and its Minister) have so little understanding of local government processes that it thinks there is still time for individual input to Council responses?
Any response has to be endorsed at a Council Meeting and meeting dates (and agendas for meetings) have to be prepared and published in advance. Papers for any Council Meeting to be held before 4th October have already been prepared and circulated to elected members and available to the community.
Vincent and Perth approved their submissions on Tuesday 24th September.
Bayswater Council came out publicly in support of its proposed amalgamation long before the community had any real opportunity to influence it.
So don't try to wrap this up in terms of a democratic opportunity at this stage.
The real opportunity will come when the proposals are formally considered by the Local Government Advisory Board - each and every one of us can make an individual submission to the LGAB. If enough of us do so, it will make a nonsense of the published timetable for amalgamations, as the LGAB couldn't possibly properly consider thousands and thousands of submissions in the time that has been allowed.
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