Casey councillors Steve Beardon and Paul Richardson want the City of Casey to be divided into north and south.
By Sarah Schwager
A COUNCILLOR’S push to split the City of Casey in two could have seen the delay of the much-anticipated Cranbourne Aquatic and Leisure Centre development.
Councillor Steve Beardon said it was time to start drawing up new boundaries for separate municipalities similar to the former Cities of Berwick and Cranbourne, reigniting talks that began in 2001.
“A Cranbourne council will be more in touch with the needs of our locals and better positioned to deliver services with a smaller population to manage,” Cr Beardon said.
However, the push for the split backfired when fellow councillor Michael Farley put forward a notice of motion to cease works on the $30 million Cranbourne pool until the issue of dividing council was resolved.
This would have seen work on the pool delayed for a year.
But Cr Farley has since decided to withdraw the notice of motion and is expected to do so tomorrow (Friday).
“I didn’t realise that we had already signed all of the contracts,” he said.
“It would be financially irresponsible of me to say then that council was not going to honour those contracts.
“If I had been quicker off the mark I would have done it.”
Cr Beardon said new boundaries needed to be drawn up before 2010 and well before the city’s population reached 300,000, which he said was the estimated growth needed before the State Government would look at a council division.
The City of Casey’s current population is 225,000 people.
Councillor Paul Richardson has also called for the City of Casey to be separated, saying the municipality as it stood was far too big.
“There is a lot of controversy about how money is spent in Casey. The needs of the south and the north of the city need to be properly addressed,” he said.
Cr Richardson said he agreed with Cr Farley that work on the Cranbourne pool should halt and said costs on the development first needed to be reviewed.
Mayor Kevin Bradford said any talk of divvying up the council was ridiculous.
“It is extremely premature to be thinking about splitting the city atthis stage,” Cr Bradford said.
“It is something that will be looked at by the State Government once Casey has reached an estimated population growth of 350,000 people.”
At a briefing to councillors on Tuesday night about the consequences of splitting council, a report noted that Casey’s significant size allowed it to advocate strongly on behalf of the community more than any other council in Victoria and that there was no sound reason to change the status quo.
Cr Bradford said none of the councillors there had any comments on the report while Cr Beardon did not turn up as he was at Cranbourne’s community kitchen.
Cr Bradford said that for a split to occur now would be financially disastrous for Pearcedale and the coastal villages.
He said he would not support the idea at least until the south was fully serviced and paid off so that a new City of Cranbourne would then be debt free.
A spokesman for the Minister for Local Government Candy Broad said the Bracks Government had no plans to divide Casey.
