AGY-423 | Cumberland County Council

Full description

The Cumberland County Council was established on 27 July 1945 by the Local Government (Town and Country Planning) Amendment Act, 1945 (Act No.21, 1945), which amended the Local Government Act 1919 by adding Part XIIA Town and Country Planning Schemes. The Act was prepared in response to an urgent need for an organised town planning scheme in NSW, which was expressed by the Minister for Local Government in his introduction of the Bill to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in February 1945: "The need for adequate town and country planning machinery is now so insistent having regard to the need for the orderly regulation of post war development and for the correction of the evils of the largely haphazard and uncontrolled development of our cities, towns and villages in the past, that satisfaction of these needs can no longer be denied. This Bill will provide the necessary machinery." (1)

The area constituted as the Cumberland County District on 27 July 1945 comprised of 61 municipalities and eight shires in Sydney. (2) Arrangements for the election of delegates were made on 3 August 1945 and were completed by 12 July 1946. (3) A town and country planning scheme for this district was required for submission to the Minister by the Council, no more than three years after the constitution of the district.

The first meeting of the Council was held on 13 November, 1945 and the scheme was submitted to the Minister on 27 July 1948. Matters provided for by the scheme included roads, the zoning of land for residential, business, industrial purposes, the location and reservation of land for afforestation purposes and recreation grounds, the location and reservation of sites for public buildings and the location of new settlements or centres of population and industry. (4) Due to a series of modifications to the Scheme for the County of Cumberland it was not made policy until three years later on 27 June 1951 under the Local Government (Amendment) Act 1951 (Act No.18, 1951).

After the establishment of the Cumberland County Council there soon arose the need for a regional planning scheme, thus on 28 May "a conference of delegates from the seven councils concerned resolved to set up a County Council not only to plan the seven local government areas on a regional basis but also to prepare detailed planning schemes in respect of each area." (5)

The Northumberland County Council had been constituted on 23 July 1948. (6) The areas included in that County District were the City of Greater Newcastle, the City of Maitland, the Municipality of Cessnock, the Shire of Kearsley, the Shire of Lake Macquarie, the Shire of Lower Hunter and the Shire of Port Stephens. Both the Cumberland County Council and the Northumberland County Council were dissolved on 1 June 1964 (7) and were replaced by The State Planning Authority in accordance with the State Planning Authority Act 1963 (Act No.59, 1963).

Endnotes
1. Town and Country Planning Advisory Committee Annual Report 1945-46 in, NSW Parliamentary Papers 1946-47, Vol. 1, p.181.
2. NSW Government Gazette No.78, 27 July 1945, p.1353.
3. NSW Government Gazette No.80, 3 August 1945, p.1397; NSW Government Gazette No.75, 12 July 1946, p.1547.
4. Town and Country Planning Advisory Committee Annual Report 1945-46 in NSW Parliamentary Papers 1946-47, Vol. 1, p.182.
5. Town and Country Planning Advisory Committee Annual Report 1947-48, in NSW Parliamentary Papers 1948-49,50, Vol. 1, p.1119.
6. NSW Government Gazette No.84, 23 July 1948, p.1800.
7. State Planning Authority Act 1959, s.26 (a); NSW Government Gazette No.68, 29 May 1964, p.1680.

References
- New South Wales Government Gazette 1945-1963.
- Joint Volumes of the Parliamentary Papers of the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly of NSW, Sydney Government Printer. 1946-1963.
- New South Wales Official Year Book, 1945-1963 Australian Encyclopaedia, Vol. 8, "Town Planning", p.532.