00:01The Bakering Cafe has closed down recently.
00:05The Southern Malley District Council covers farming towns and bushland across parts of Essays East
00:09and the number of people who call this region home has been steadily falling.
00:14In the peak census we had 2,500 kids under the age of 19.
00:18Now we've got 2,000 people in total. So that's a big shift.
00:21It's one of four councils in the Murraylands and Riverlands
00:24that the Local Government Association has labelled potentially unsustainable.
00:28The small councils who have large road bases, large areas to look after and small ratepayer bases
00:34really struggle when compared to their metro or peri-urban counterparts who have lots of ratepaying entities to fund them.
00:42Amalgamation is now being discussed as a possible solution.
00:45I know there are people in our district who think we should amalgamate
00:48and I think they have a very right to share their voice and a normal vote
00:53to be able to number the options one to four and say, look, what do you want to do?
00:57Some locals are on board if it's done well.
01:00Amalgamations must have the local community retain its identity and its voice.
01:05The last major shake-up of local government in South Australia occurred in 1997
01:10where 119 local councils consolidated into 68.
01:14The Local Government Association says it's not against further amalgamations
01:18but there are other possible solutions.
01:21Maybe you have a CEO sitting over a whole region and general managers at each council.
01:27But certainly sharing of staff is really, really important.
01:31The next state government would have to approve any changes.
01:34Ratepayers will have the chance to vote on the idea in June.
01:38That goes to Castle S Wand next time.
01:38Keep on Göring AngĐ±Ń got veterans of the Gr solchenì.
01:39That goes to Pike waving already!
01:44Veine.
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