Politics Local government - love them, loathe them or get rid of them

[MrsBlueSky]

What's happening in your area of Australia regarding the third tier of government - the local shire, town, city or regional council.
I live in a town in WA where the local council rangers make more money from issuing parking fines than any other jurisdiction of its size in Australia and I find it highly embarrassing.
There was a failed move some years ago to combine smaller councils together to share resources and reduce the number of CEO's on more than $200k who do very little for the money.

 

[james haish]

It’s an interesting question. People tend to object to amalgamated councils, you get worse service for the same charges. Councils are probably the biggest impediment to productivity in the country, but aside from ACT no one has a missing third level of govt, and Australia is too geographically large to completely abolish them.

 

[evolved2]

$200k for a CEO is nothing. I'd sooner get rid of state government than local.

 

[Trouto]

My LGA are a bunch of power-trippers. They constantly implement projects that cost the rate payer various amounts and neglect to consult the rate payers if they actually want it.

We have a single off-lead dog exercise area in town, a strip of reserve along side the river that is just over 1km in length. every other park and such around town is pathed and accessible to all and sundry. The LGA in their infinite wisdom have recently decided to lay a concrete path in the dog walk area to make it a 'bike path' and they refuse to tell the dog walkers if they will make it on-lead or not. This little area where dogs can run free is by far the most popular park in town, literally hundreds of people use it daily (no exaggeration) and we are all concerned that one incident with a kid on a bike falling cos a dog runs past them will spell the end to the dog's fun.

 

[Seeds]

Can i loathe them and want to get rid of them or do i have to pick just one of these options?

 

[MrsBlueSky]

Can i loathe them and want to get rid of them or do i have to pick just one of these options?

I loathe them, hate them and want to get rid of them, but there may be someone somewhere in Australia who has had a good experience and genuinely thinks they do a good job so they would probably just choose the love option.