Peninsula might end up with no representation at all

If Mark Ellis is concerned about the current treatment of the Peninsula in the Central Coast budget ("We deserve our fair share", May 1), let him wait until after September.

From then on, Budgewoi, The Entrance and Terrigal will have nine of the 15 members on the new council, and one wonders how many of them will even realise that Woy Woy (at the other end of the Rip Bridge) is part of the Central Coast.

Given that the Peninsula has been wrongly lumped in with Gosford and a vast hinterland area as one ward (when it should have been part of the Terrigal ward), it can be easily overlooked when priorities are being set.

In the future, we might look back on these as halcyon days for the Peninsula.

Furthermore, ward candidates don't have to live in the ward for which they stand.

Given that many electors simply vote for a Party candidate, it is easy to envisage that the Peninsula might wind up with no representative on the council at all.

This problem could have been obviated, at least in part, by having 15 one-councillor wards instead five three-councillor wards, as it is now configured.

The present ward boundaries are just the result of lazy, sloppy thinking by the "expert" who drew them up, and what we need is a campaign to persuade the new council to redraw the boundaries before the next election.

Unfortunately, councillors who have been elected under one system are not likely to have a high incentive to change the system merely in the interests of democratic representation.

I wonder whether a redistribution question falls within the remit of our new Coordinator-General.

Perhaps, she could use this as a test case of her real influence on events.

Email, 3 May 2017

Bruce Hyland, Woy Woy