The plan to merge the 30 councils of metropolitan Perth into around half as many has been called a “dog’s breakfast” by the WA Opposition.

Opposition Leader Mark McGowan has unleashed on Premier Colin Barnett over the merger, which he says has been presented in numerous forms and caused widespread confusion.

Plans were set to cut the councils down to just 14 jurisdictions, but a map produced by the WA Government this week showed 16 councils will remain after the amalgamation.

“It happens day in, day out. The Premier says one thing and the truth is another thing,” Mr McGowan said.

“Once again, the Premier is being tricky with the truth and this is another example of that.”

But the WA Premier said McGowan is firing off prematurely, as the final number of merged councils has not yet been decided.

“There is no final figure set but the overall objective is to halve the number of councils, now whether it's 14, 15, 16, we haven't got to that.

“Over the next week or so the boundaries for the other areas will also be finalised and released, and then there'll be an opportunity for councils or individuals or groups to differ and express different points of view about some of the fine detail.”

The Premier has come out in support of proposed new Perth City boundaries that included the entire City of Vincent, which was going to be sliced up. The changes were the result of rallies by Vincent residents.

But protests have not worked for everyone, according to Mayor of Victoria Park, Trevor Vaughan: “We had rallies similar to Vincent, we had 2,000 people who all said that Burswood should stay with us,” the Mayor said.

“We have had 97 percent of people in our survey who said that Burswood should stay with the town of Victoria Park so I'm absolutely annoyed about this.”