New South Wales councils will be able to form new voluntary Joint Organisations from next year.
The State Government introduced new laws in October to allow the creation of new Joint Organisations (JO), which will begin in July 2018.
Local Government New South Wales (LGNSW) welcomed the announcement.
“Joint organisations were originally planned to be rolled out during 2017 following the success of a five-region pilot program during 2015/16 and since then, we have made repeated calls for their introduction,” LGNSW President Rhoades said.
“We’re pleased that council membership of a JO will be voluntary and we encourage councils to engage regionally through JOs and other regional organisations.
“LGNSW actively participated in the development of the JO model and strongly argued that councils rather than the state government should determine which JO they join.
“However, we note that the JO boundaries proposed in today’s announcement align with NSW Planning regional boundaries.
“We will continue to advocate that councils are best placed to know which regional communities are most relevant to their needs and interests.
“Seed funding of $3.3 million is to be provided by the Government to support councils choosing to participate.
“We strongly believe ongoing recurrent funding will be critical to the success of JOs and we will continue to advocate for this.”
