Facebook postings critical of the giant WestConnex road project began disappearing from the former Leichhardt Council Facebook page on Thursday adding to fears that the new administrator of the merged council, Richard Pearson, has been installed to help shepherd the project through.
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The Greens, who were tipped off about the disappearances, took screenshots as postings were disappearing on Thursday.
"This is an Orwellian rewriting of history and a deeply political act from the new administration," Greens MP and local government spokesman David Shoebridge said.
"It has only been a week and we are already seeing the influence of Baird's handpicked administrator in the inner west. This can only be a sign of what's to come in Baird's undemocratic amalgamation agenda."
A spokeswoman at the Leichhardt office of the Inner West council said the purge was not deliberate and inquiries of Facebook had revealed the posts had been hidden due to "housekeeping by Facebook of older posts".
"We are trying to get them back up," she said.
The names on the council websites and the Facebook of the three inner west councils – Marrickville, Leichhardt and Ashfield – changed to Inner West Council on Thursday and at the same time some posts by the former councils started disappearing.
On the Leichardt Council site two postings on February 4 and 10 disappeared. One was headed "WestConnex Business case a sham" and the other "WestConnex to tighten choke point at Anzac Bridge".
Postings critical of the road project disappeared from the former Leichhardt Council Facebook page. Photo: Supplied
Marrickville and Leichhardt councils have been highly critical of the WestConnex project because of the impact it would have on their residents, particularly where traffic emerges into congested above ground streets.
It comes as tender information shows the government spent $1.5 million in three months on delegates to run meetings and report on council mergers.
All the reports released so far have recommended that mergers proceed, though some have suggested changes to the Baird government's original proposals. The arguments are based on costings done by accounting firm KPMG, but that report has not been released.
Labor's spokesman Peter Primrose said that at $105,000 per delegate the public could have expected a little bit more bang for their buck. Unfortunately all they received was another round of secretive reports.
In the case of Kiama, the government paid roughly $2000 per page for the delegate's 55-page report, but chose to ignore the report that it merge with Shoalhaven.
Kiama residents were strongly opposed to the merger and the council area makes up the northern part of the marginal federal seat of Gilmore.
The state government engaged Hudson Global Resources to source and provide 15 delegates for a fee of $1,582,273, according to the government's tender site.
