Region. Councils would go 'broke'

Councils in Sydney growth centres are refusing to process major development applications in a rapidly worsening dispute with the state government over its decision to impose a $20,000 cap on developer levies. Councils say the cap means new housing developments will lack critical infrastructure or ratepayers will face huge rate rises to pay for the facilities developers used to fund. President of the Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils, Clr Alison McLaren, said the changes had infuriated members who would have to borrow to fund infrastructure or ask IPART for huge rate rises. ''It could send our councils broke,'' she said. A spokesman for Planning Minister, Tony Kelly, in The Sydney Morning Herald, defended the changes which were designed to reduce the cost of housing and ''provided councils with the autonomy to raise funding for their own infrastructure''.

Region. Call to save urban agriculture

President of the Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils Ltd (WSROC), Clr Alison McLaren, has urged the federal government to work with councils and the people of Western Sydney to secure the future of urban agriculture in the Sydney Basin. "The federal government needs to realise that agriculture is not just the domain of rural areas. The failure to take seriously the need for long term agricultural land in the Sydney Basin will have disastrous consequences for our food supply,” Clr McLaren said. WSROC said there would be a significant impact on employment – currently there are over 6000 jobs in the sector in Western Sydney – and on the sustainability of ethnic communities which have coalesced around the market garden industries.

Region. Funds for roads in budget

The following allocations have been made in the NSW budget for road works: $22 million to complete construction of the final stage of the upgrade of Hoxton Park Road to four lanes; $22 million to complete construction of the upgrade of Camden Valley Way to four lanes between Bernera Road and Cowpasture Road; $10 million to complete construction of the final stage of the four lane upgrade of Cowpasture Road; $174 million program of work for the Great Western Highway; $42 million to continue construction, jointly funded with the federal government, of the F5 Freeway widening between Ingleburn and Campbelltown; $28 million to continue planning and pre-construction activities for the upgrade of Camden Valley Way to four lanes between Cowpasture Road and Cobbitty Road; $20 million to start construction of the four lane upgrade of Camden Valley Way between Cobbitty Road and Narellan Road; and $10 million to complete planning and pre-construction for the Erskine Park Link Road to service the Western Sydney Employment Area.