Inner West Council

Inner West Council is a local government area located in the Inner West region of Sydney in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The Inner West LGA makes up the eastern part of this wider region, and was formed on 12 May 2016 from the merger of the former Ashfield, Leichhardt and Marrickville councils.

The Inner West LGA covers an area of and as at the had an estimated population of .

The Mayor of Inner West Council is Darcy Byrne, re-elected by the councillors on 8 October 2024. The most recent NSW local government election, on 14 September 2024, resulted in a Labor majority of 8 Councillors, for the second consecutive term.

History

In the early 2010s, the New South Wales Government explored merging various local government areas to create larger councils within Sydney. In 2013, the Independent Local Government Review Panel (ILGRP) initially proposed a merger of the six inner west councils - Burwood, Strathfield, Canada Bay, Ashfield, Leichhardt and Marrickville, into a single council that would govern almost all of the inner west region.Merger Proposal: Burwood Council, City of Canada Bay Council, Strathfield Municipal Council
, January 2016 Alternative mergers were also proposed, such as one between Auburn, Burwood and Canada Bay, or between Burwood, Canada Bay, Strathfield and Ashfield. The final proposal in the 2015 review of local government boundaries recommended that the Municipality of Ashfield, the Municipality of Leichhardt and the Marrickville Council merge to form a new council with an area of and support a population of approximately . On 12 May 2016, Ashfield Council, Marrickville Council and the Municipality of Leichhardt merged to form the Inner West Council.

The Inner West Council was the first local authority in Sydney to end Australia Day celebrations, from 2020.

Proposed de-amalgamation

In December 2021, a majority of voters in the Inner West LGA voted in favour of reversing the 2016 merger and separating the three pre-existing councils of Ashfield, Leichhardt and Marrickville. The final declared results were: 62% yes and 38% no.

In 2022, the council prepared a business case for de-amalgamation. In December 2022, Inner West Council prepared and submitted a final submission to the NSW Minister for Local Government.

However in March 2024, the Minister for Local Government received the NSW Local Government Boundaries Commission’s report regarding the Council’s business case for de-amalgamation. The report recommended that the proposed de-amalgamation of Inner West Council should not proceed, stating this would be the best outcome for residents and ratepayers of the current local government area.

Suburbs and localities in the local government area

are:

Demographics

At the , there were people in the Inner West local government area; of these 48.8 per cent were male and 51.2 per cent were female. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 1.2 per cent of the population; significantly below the NSW and Australian averages of 3.4 and 3.2 per cent respectively. The median age of people in Inner West Council was 38 years; same as the national median of 38 years. Children aged 0 – 14 years made up 14.6 per cent of the population and people aged 65 years and over made up 14.1 per cent of the population. Of people in the area aged 15 years and over, 37.1 per cent were married and 10.7 per cent were either divorced or separated.

At the 2021 census, the proportion of residents in the Inner West local government area who stated their ancestry as Australian or from Britain or Ireland was about 68 per cent of all residents. In excess of 49 per cent of all residents in Inner West Council nominated a no religious affiliation at the 2021 census, which was in excess of the national average of 38.4 per cent. Meanwhile, as at the census date, compared to the national average, households in the Inner West local government area had a higher than average proportion (42.9 per cent) where two or more languages are spoken (the national average was 31.8 per cent); and a lower proportion (69.8 per cent) where English only was spoken at home (national average was 72.0 per cent).

Council

The Inner West Council comprises fifteen Councillors elected proportionally, with three Councillors elected in five wards. On 9 September 2017, the current council was elected for a fixed three-year term of office (which was extended for twelve months in 2020 to December 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic); the mayor is appointed biennially and deputy mayor annually by the councillors at the first meeting of the council.

Officeholders

Current composition

The most recent election was held on 14 September 2024, and the makeup of the council by order of election, is as follows:

Town halls

The Inner West Council owns and maintains the three seats of the three pre-merger councils, being Ashfield Town Hall, Petersham Town Hall and Leichhardt Town Hall. Since 2021, all Council meetings have been held at the Ashfield Service Centre


In addition, the Council also owns the Marrickville, Balmain and St Peters town halls, which were the seats of municipal councils that had existed prior to their merger into the immediate predecessor councils.

Election results

2024

2021

Past councillors

Ashfield–Djarrawunang Ward

Balmain–Baludarri Ward

Leichhardt–Gulgadya Ward

Marrickville–Midjuburi Ward

Stanmore–Damun Ward

Culture

Inner West Library Service

The ''Inner West Library Service'' consists of a network of 8 libraries located within the Inner West Council boundaries. After the Inner West Council amalgamation, a new library management system was launched on 1 March 2019, with a soft launch in late February allowing members to borrow from all libraries in the service.

The libraries of the ''Inner West Library Service'' include:
*Ashfield Library
*Balmain Library
*Emmanuel Tsardoulias Community Dulwich Hill Library
*Haberfield Library
*Leichhardt Library
*Marrickville Library
*Stanmore Library
*St Peters/Sydenham Library

See also

* Local government areas of New South Wales

Notes

References

External links

*

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2016 establishments in Australia
Local government areas in Sydney