Anyone who has ever had to deal with their local Council would have a story of how good or bad they are. We deal with all 140 local councils in Western Australia. What we get is a lot more bad than good.
The biggest issues with Perth's local councils is the inconsistencies. We submit plans to councils on a daily basis for our patio customers. Even when we think we are across the rules and regulations, a new person in a shire will come in interpret the rules differently. They will ask for different information that wasn't required on the last patio application in that council.
Or what can happen is we build a patio on one side of a road in one council and then try to build the same patio in another council on the other side of the road. One council will let us, the other won't. They interpret rules differently or even more frustrating add their own layer of rules on top of the standard rules.
We have many examples of frustrating and time consuming red tape slowing down what should be a simple process of getting a patio addition approved. Therefore we can only agree that the merging of councils would have to be a good thing. By having less councils there will be less inconsistency, less rules to interpret and hopefully greater resources to process what should be simple paperwork approvals.
An article in yesterdays West Australian had three prominent Perth property people all agreeing to council mergers. All make similar points about how having less councils can only be a good thing. It seems the only people screaming out for no change are the affected Mayors and other bureaucrats who don't want to let go of their patch of power and oversized council buildings.
It will be an interesting development going forward. As a member of the community who has been very dissatisfied with local council for over a decade I hold my breathe, hoping for this overdue shakeup to begin.
