Blacktown Council votes against name change

Blacktown Council has voted to keep its name, despite a push to change it.

Blacktown Mayor Stephen Bali

Blacktown Mayor Stephen Bali Source: AAP

Following a two-hour debate on Wednesday night, the council voted along party lines to reject further actions to change its name.

Last year, several councillors suggested the name should be amended to either, West Sydney City Council, Western Sydney Council or Fairwater Council.

A bloc of Liberal councillors campaigned for months that a name change would modernise the council's image and change historic racist connotations of the name.

But several Labor councillors, led by Mayor Stephen Bali, argued that with a population of 340,000 people and growing at a rate of 7,000 per year, there was no need for revitalisation.
Bali put the following motion to council on Wednesday: "Given the results of the community consultation showed that the majority feedback from residents was that they did not want to rename the Blacktown Local Government Area, that no further action be taken."

The motion passed with a majority of the 15 councillors voting in favour of Cr Bali's recommendation.

Cr Bali told the ABC the decision was the "best possible outcome".

"It cost (the) council $98,000 to find out what everyone living here should already have known – we love Blacktown," he said.
Cr Bali said Aboriginal groups considered the name change disrespectful to Indigenous Australians.

"We asked the Blacktown Aboriginal community and discovered the situation was quite the reverse, they are proud to live in Blacktown," Cr Bali said.

The council surveyed more than 3,000 ratepayers and found that just under 80 per cent did not want a name change.

A public forum was also held, where 96 per cent of speakers opposed the name change.


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