Andrew Fraser Calls For Investigation into Coffs Harbour Council

Coffs Harbour City Council has again come underfire, this time from the Member for Coffs Harbour Andrew Fraser.

On Thursday afternoon in State Parliament, Mr Fraser raised concerns on behalf of the Coffs Harbour City Centre Masterplan Committee, calling for an investigation into the conditions of the special rate variation.

According to the Coffs Harbour MP, and in a letter sent to the Coffs Harbour City Council General Manager, concerns were raised in regards to the Council.

In planning for a community safety project at C.ex, the letter states: "the CBD Masterplan Committee was asked for support. Unfortunately I had to inform the C.ex we couldn't consider contributing because our true financial position is unknown".

The letter then went on to say, "We've had a significant cost blow-out on the Harbour Dr shared zone, and the total cost of the Duke St extension remains allocated to the Special Rate Variation (SRV), despite several requests to have it removed".

A major concern raised in the letter was "the vague note regarding Duke St, saying "additional funding to come from other Council Budget areas."

It was heard in State Parliament that a Council employee of the Masterplan Committee meeting late last year allegedly said, "It's our money (Council's) and we can spend it on whatever we want, and we don't need your permission".

Mr Fraser also raised other issues involving the Coffs Harbour City Council, including the contracts for the Public Swimming Pools.

"We have a situation where council is failing to provide the information it promised to provide. In applying to IPART for that variation, they have also this week given delegated authority to the general manager to hand out a contract on the swimming pools, which has created hundreds of emails and letters to my office".

Andrew Fraser is calling on IPART (Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal) and the NSW Government to have a full investigation into the conditions of the special rate variation.

"There are huge question marks over it. Either the Minister for Local Government has to do it or IPART has to do it, to ensure that the money is spent where it was promised to be spent in the first place, because we are not getting a fair deal from council", said Mr Fraser.

Triple M have contacted Coffs Harbour City Council for comment.

On Friday, Andrew Fraser spoke to Moffee on Triple M - listen to the full chat here: