Five Corrimal homes could be set for backyard cricket, thanks to council

With more space, thanks to Wollongong City Council, five Corrimal home owners could have the room for a bit of backyard cricket. File picture

Five Corrimal neighbours might find backyard cricket a little easier thanks to a sell-off by Wollongong City Council.

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The sale of the land is one of the items being discussed at Monday night's city council meeting.

The council owns the 1157 square metres of land in Lyndon Street that runs behind the five properties.

It was unwanted by the council because it had little use for the landlocked site with no road access.

"It is unused by the community and not fit for public recreation," the council's business papers said.

The Wollongong City Council land in yellow will be sold to five Corrimal home owners to extend their backyards.

"It is a grassed, lightly treed, pocket park that does not serve the community. It is located within a mixed flood zone, with parts that are High Flood Risk and form a shallow grass stream during flood events."

The council has been negotiating with the five property owners to each buy an equal share of the land to extend their backyards.

Also up for debate on Monday night is a plan to deal with "energy poverty", where people spend at least 10 per cent of their income on power bills.

According to a council study on energy equity almost 20 per cent of residents in the Wollongong local government area were experiencing energy poverty.

The top five suburbs for energy poverty, which largely overlapped with those most economically disadvantaged, were Warrawong, Cringila, Berkeley, Bellambi and Windang.

The councillors will consider the council's draft Energy Equity Framework, which aims to encourage the sector to consider energy poverty in the development of programs.

"Council has an important role in understanding and responding to local energy inequities, advocating for vulnerable communities, and supporting a fair and inclusive clean energy transition," the business papers said.

The business papers also include a report that said the Lord Mayor should get a $10,000 pay rise, in a submission to the Local Government Remuneration Tribunal, which sets the pay for local government.

The council's argument is that it should be on a par with Parramatta City Council, where the mayor was paid $126,000 and councillors $39,100.

The latest figures for Wollongong City Council are $114,300 for the lord mayor and $36,690 for councillors.

"Parramatta's higher categorisation recognises its role as a metropolitan centre with substantial economic, government, health, education, transport and regional service functions," the council submission said.

"Wollongong and Newcastle perform comparable metropolitan regional capital functions for the Illawarra-Shoalhaven and Hunter respectively.

"Whilst Parramatta is assessed within a metropolitan context, Wollongong and Newcastle should be assessed in an equivalent manner within their metropolitan-regional contexts, because their responsibilities include statewide infrastructure and gateway functions that are not adequately captured in a conventional regional city category."

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