LIGHT Regional Council will hold off on public consultation with its residents caught-up in a boundary stoush with neighbour Gawler.

Council met with the independent Boundaries Commission earlier this month to discuss Gawler’s plan to take in areas of neighbouring councils, including Hewett, Reid and Gawler Belt.

It was given general advice that any consultation may be premature, given Gawler’s proposal is yet to reach the formal inquiry stage, and if it does, the commission would initiate a consultation process.

“Consultation with affected communities is less helpful at this stage as the commission will have regard to its own engagement and consultation if a ‘general proposal’ is submitted for an inquiry,” a staff report, included in last week’s council meeting, stated.

“Importantly, once a ‘general proposal’ is submitted, there is no guarantee that what the initiating council is seeking will ultimately be the result of an inquiry.”

Gawler Council is currently undertaking its own consultation process as it investigates proceeding with a proposal to take the above mentioned areas from Light Regional, along with Kalbeeba and the Concordia Growth Area from the Barossa Council, and portions of Evanston Park and Hiller from Playford.

Last week, Light Regional Council moved a motion reiterating that if the proposal succeeded, the council would become unsustainable, “to the detriment of its ratepayers, its service delivery capacity and its genuine regional aspirations”.

In a letter to Gawler Council, it has also asked that consideration be given to service requirements for Gawler’s nominated region and how these may best be met when factoring in present supply of facilities, forecast projects, current population levels and forecast population growth expectations.