This is a petition for the proposal of a complete restructure to all of the LGA councils within the Greater Sydney Metropolitan Area directed at The Office of Local Government NSW which is something that is long overdue and will highly benefit Sydneysiders financially, catering towards growing needs in the local communities.

As it stands Greater Sydney currently has 30 LGA councils with some being tiny while others are mega without there being much reason nor purpose for the drastic contrasts that are seen. With the population within this definition of Greater Sydney being roughly 5,000,000 and growing plus the sizes and boundaries of most of the councils not making much sense, I propose Greater Sydney be restructured into 22 councils that reflect Sydney's 22 regions. Sydney's regions tend to share similar history, culture and demographics while also having obvious physical boundaries such as rivers, freeways, train lines and reserves making it much more efficient for council operations and beneficial for residents. 

The proposed 22 LGA councils to correspond with their regions include:

• Inner City (Sydney CBD & Surrounds) (pop. <150,000)
• Eastern Suburbs (Woollahra-Waverley) (pop. <150,000)
• South-Eastern Suburbs (Randwick-Botany) (pop. <200,000)
• Inner South (South Sydney) (pop. <100,000)
• Southern Suburbs (St George) (pop. <300,000)
• Outer South (Sutherland Shire) (pop. <250,000)
• Inner West (Marrickville-Concord) (pop. <450,000)
• Inner South-West (Canterbury-Greenacre) (pop. <200,000)
• Western Suburbs (Parramatta-Blacktown) (pop. <700,000)
• South-Western Suburbs (Bankstown-Liverpool) (pop. <350,000)
• North-Western Suburbs (North Parramatta) (pop. <150,000)
• Hills District (Baulkham Hills-Cherrybrook) (pop. <200,000)
• Outer West (Penrith-Mount Druitt) (pop. <250,000)
• Outer South-West (Macarthur) (pop. <300,000)
• Outer North-West (The Ponds) (pop. <150,000)
• Northern Suburbs (Ryde-Hunters Hill) (pop. <200,000)
• Lower North Shore (North Sydney-Willoughby) (pop. <250,000)
• Upper North Shore (Ku-ring-gai) (pop. <150,000)
• Outer North (Hornsby) (pop. <100,000)
• Forest District (Frenchs Forest) (pop. <50,000)
• Lower Northern Beaches (Manly-Warringah) (pop. <150,000)
• Upper Northern Beaches (Pittwater) (pop. <100,000)

Map of Greater Sydney's 22 regions:

 

 

The councils of Sutherland Shire and Ku-ring-gai can remain as they are while some former councils to be restored include Pittwater and Canterbury. The larger regions such as the Western Suburbs and South-Western Suburbs can potentially be broken up into more than one council but the overall boundaries should still reflect the region.

This petition may come across as belated considering the NSW Liberal government had Sydney amalgamation proposals and mergers back between 2013 and 2017. Some council boundaries were changed to increase their size while others were forcibly amalgamated to create the existing councils of; Bayside Council, Northern Beaches Council, Inner West Council, City of Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland City Council and Georges River Council. While most of these councils have attempted to de-amalgamate, their efforts have been in vain due to the costs involved.

There were many other plans of amalgamation during this period which were scrapped due to conflicts of interests and legal action taken by councils against the NSW Government which has now left Sydney with the contrast of the ridiculously large councils and the councils which are unnecessarily small such as Willoughby City Council, Lane Cove Council, North Sydney Council, Mosman Council, Hunter's Hill Council, Strathfield Council, Burwood Council, City of Canada Bay, Waverley Council and Woollahra Council.

Some Greater Sydney councils are so large they stretch beyond the Greater Sydney Metropolitan Area such as the Hornsby Shire Council, the Hills Shire Council, Penrith City Council, Liverpool City Council, Camden Council and Campbelltown City Council. All of these should be redefined to fit within Greater Sydney suburbia rather than stretching into rural and semi-rural New South Wales.

Map of Greater Sydney's current LGA councils:

 

 

While 2016 saw one of the biggest changes to Greater Sydney's LGA councils, amalgamation and changes to Sydney's council boundaries has happened countless times in the past and will inevitably happen again as they are never fixed. It may seem like this proposal is similar to what the NSW Liberal government attempted to do in 2016, forging larger councils to reflect regions, however their definition of 'regions' had population and size requirements and very little to do with physical boundaries, culture and demographics which is why we have the mega council of the Northern Beaches and why we have the senseless Bayside Council that connected two completely separate areas of Sydney which is still confounding to most people today.

This proposal is to get The Office of Local Government NSW to change things for the better in the community, closer to where they should be historically, culturally, geographically, demographically and socio-economically. Sign this petition if you agree.