NSW government to proceed with Sydney council amalgamations but scrap disputed regional plans

The New South Wales government will proceed with five remaining Sydney council amalgamations but will walk away from regional plans that are before the courts, Premier Gladys Berejiklian has said.

Ms Berejiklian today said the government had realised that regional areas had different needs to those in Sydney.

"Whilst we continue to proceed with all the mergers that we've already announced in Sydney, we will not proceed with those mergers that are outside Sydney that are before the courts," she said.

The government will scrap plans to merge Blayney, Cabbone and Orange; Bathurst and Oberon; and Shellharbour and Wollongong, which are pending due to court challenges.

Ms Berejiklian said that in hindsight, there could have been a better approach to merging regional councils.

"Hand on heart, as a member of the government, I feel like we could've addressed that differently," she said. 

"We do believe very strongly that outside of Sydney circumstances are very different.

"We should not have assumed a one size fits all approach for the whole of the state."

Sydney would benefit from the five remaining mergers, Ms Berejiklian said.

"There is no excuse or justification why Sydney should have 41 councils where somewhere like Brisbane has one,'" she said.

The Sydney mergers that will go ahead pending any court approval are Randwick, Waverley and Woollahra; Mosman, North Sydney and Willoughby; Burwood, Canada Bay and Strathfield; Hunters Hill, Lane Cove and Ryde; and Hornsby and Ku-ring-gai.