Region. Councils face difficult period

Councils have done an “amazing” job over many years to contain costs but it gets more difficult every year, said Clr Alison McLaren, president of the Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (WSROC). “Councils are faced with the ever-increasing costs of providing services and quality infrastructure,” she said.“This was under the inequitable weight of government rate pegging and the never-ending stream of services and responsibilities being transferred to councils without sufficient support funding. Add to that the potential loss from capping developer contributions, and we have a never-ending backlog of works,” she said. Clr McLaren made these comments following the release of the 2009 Fiscal Star report which noted many councils in NSW were “financially unsustainable”.