The New South Wales Independent Local Government Review Panel (ILGRP) has nearly finished its report on the state of play for local governance, with council amalgamation recommendations seeming quite likely.

ILGRP Chairperson Professor Graham Sansom says final consultations will wrap up soon, at which point the Panel can hand down its ‘10 point starter package for reform’.

Among the points will be a push to develop a local government finance facility covering the entire state, and a look at two-year terms for mayors.

The Panel says the final report will be in the hands of the SW Local Government Minister Don Page in about a week.

Professor Sansom says he does not expect all the recommendations to be welcomed wholeheartedly, especially surrounding mergers.

“We believe that changing some of the structures of local government has to be part of the mix, if we're going to have a substantial system into the middle years of the 21st century,” Prof Sansom says

“We will not shy away from talking about the need for some amalgamations and boundary changes.”

The Panel has responded to community outcry over a previous county council model proposal, Prof Sansom says it quickly became clear that the original idea was not going to fly.

“We've come up with this new generic concept of joint organisations which could include some of the existing county councils, but also it would enable existing regional organisation of councils to strengthen their role,” he said.

“And we already have two or three or four region who are very keen to be pilots for that program.”

Other early word indicates there will not be too many changes to the proposed Western Region Authority, with the Panel saying it believes there needs to be special arrangements tailored for the opportunities in the state’s west.

“We're not fundamentally changing it... we're simply giving more emphasis to the role of local government, perhaps than indicated in our previous reports,” Sansom said.