The ability of residents to name which Bayside Council ward they live in should be as easy as 1,2,3.
And it soon will be if Bayside Council has its way.
Since the amalgamation of Rockdale and Botany Bay Councils, many residents are confused about the name of their ward.
Councillors are regularly contacted by residents about issues that relate to a different ward.
Residents are particularly frustrated by the confusion between the naming of the Port Botany and Botany Bay wards.
Botany Bay Ward includes all the suburbs facing Botany Bay from Kyeemagh to Sandringham and Sans Souci.
Port Botany is to the east of the airport and includes Banksmeadow, Hillsdale, Eastgardens, Pagewood and Daceyville.
To add to the confusion, the Mascot Ward includes Arncliffe, Turrella and Wolli Creek.
The numerical ward naming system was used by Rockdale Council before the amalgamation.
This week, Councillor Michael Nagi called for Bayside to rename the five council wards using a simple numerical sequence of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 to eliminate the confusion, particularly between the Botany Bay and Port Botany Wards.
His call for the council to undertake community consultation on renaming the wards was supported by his fellow councillors.
“There are a lot of residents who are very frustrated and confused about the names of these wards,” Cr Nagi said.
“What we are proposing is easy, simple, logical, reasonable and well-meaning,” he said.
“I move that the council renames wards by using the simple numerical sequence 1,2,3,4 and 5 to eliminate the confusion between Botany Bay and Port Botany wards,” he said.
Cr James MacDonald supported him.
“This is about making it easier for residents,”he said. “We used to have those ward numbers in the former Rockdale Council. We have people who live in Kogarah and Carlton who are in Bexley Ward.”
Cr Liz Barlow agreed.
“It is easier to have numbers than names,” she said. “I door-knocked in Kogarah and had people say, ‘I don’t live in Bexley, I live in Kogarah. Why are we in Bexley?’ In the end I said to them, ‘Blame Mr Baird. He sacked us. He named the wards.’ It was very confusing and people got quite angry.”
Cr Nagi said the numerical naming was a non-discriminatory identifier of the wards.
“We had people living in Arncliffe wards saying we are now in Mascot. This is discriminatory. If we are going to use only names I suggest we use Aboriginal names.”
Mayor Bill Saravinovski said the consultation will be only for the names of the wards, not the ward boundaries.
“We will look at the boundaries in due course,” he said.
The council will report back in February 2019 on the results of the community consultation on renaming the wards.
