North Sydney residents now face service cuts and asset sales after rate rise rejection.

By ANNA USHER

North Sydney residents may face service cuts or asset sales after the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) rejected the Council’s bid to increase rates by 87.05% over two years.

IPART also knocked back the Council’s proposal to raise minimum rates from $715 to $1,548, citing insufficient financial justification and a failure to clearly communicate the changes to residents.

The tribunal noted concerns from locals that the rate hike would fund cost overruns from the redevelopment of the North Sydney Olympic Pool.

Mayor Zoe Baker said the decisions were “incredibly disappointing” and warned the Council would now have to consider reducing services or selling assets to address its financial burden.

“As a councillor who fought tirelessly to stop the increased scale and rushed decision-making of the North Sydney Olympic Pool project, it pains me that the liquidity crisis caused by this project will continue to have impacts on council’s service delivery and capacity to maintain and renew infrastructure for the foreseeable future,” she said.

The rate rise motion, which passed 7-3 at a contentious February Council meeting, was linked to the budget blowout in the North Sydney Pool redevelopment. Without the rate increase, Mayor Baker said, infrastructure projects like North Sydney Oval, Stanton Library, and local sporting fields would remain unfunded.

“Service levels will be reviewed and reduced, and the Council’s ability to respond to new requests from the community will be limited.”

The Mayor reiterated that North Sydney’s financial struggles have been well documented and called for a clearer alternative pathway to financial repair, suggesting the current system fails to address long-term financial challenges.

“If a council like North Sydney, subject to significant public scrutiny in media across the State, is unable to effect financial repair through applications to IPART, the system is clearly flawed,” she said.

“If the current SRV process is not able to fix a long-standing structural financial problem and plan for the future, we risk embedding ad hoc financial decision-making, moving from project to project and crisis to crisis. This approach does not offer certainty for financial sustainability nor for our community.

The Council will now seek guidance from the State Government on an “alternative pathway” to address its ongoing financial challenges.