Premier Gladys Berejiklian is standing firm on her plans to merge more than a dozen Sydney councils despite a court ruling that deemed the process lacked "procedural fairness" for some of those involved.
The NSW Court of Appeal on Monday blocked the forced amalgamation between Ku-ring-gai Council and neighbouring Hornsby Shire after it found the merger could not proceed in its current form.
"(The verdict) doesn't change our plans at all," Premier Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney on Tuesday.
"We will seek legal advice and consider the best way forward," Ms Berejiklian said, adding that she would not specify how the government plans to do so.
The court ruled in favour of five of Ku-ring-gai's six arguments in its decision to grant the council's appeal on Monday.
They included that a government-appointed delegate failed to properly assess the merger because he did not have access to a KPMG report used to underpin the financial reasoning behind it.
The council was also denied "procedural fairness" in the process because it was similarly denied access to the consultancy firm's report, it found.
The ruling could affect a number of pending legal challenges being pursued by other Sydney councils which were denied full access to KPMG's reports.
The government would consider what it could have done "differently and better" in light of the finding, Ms Berejiklian said.
"I'm not going to pre-empt what the court cases that are pending are going to have as an outcome," she said.
"But I'll say this, as a government we're really determined to see this through because we believe it's in the best interests of the public."
Ms Berejiklian decided to walk away from planned amalgamations in the bush but forge ahead with those in the city after she replaced Mike Baird as premier earlier this year.
There are 20 already-amalgamated councils across NSW, with five more to be created in Sydney if their legal challenges are unsuccessful.
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