Residents of Burwood in Sydney’s inner west are watching and waiting to see if the Premier will allow them to emerge from hard lockdown early.

The area is listed as a hotspot despite recording just 69 cases in a month, while the City of Sydney maintains relative freedom at 843 cases in the same period.

Burwood Mayor John Faker has appealed today to Premier Gladys Berejiklian to remove his council area from the hotspot LGAs altogether, instead of making “ridiculous” adjustments to restrictions.

He told Deborah Knight there’s been no “clear indication of action yet”, and constituents are “starting to losing hope”.

“How is it safe to have to have a picnic for two hours, but it’s not safe to have it for three?

“I reiterated to the Premier today that it’s really important she … rewards communities like Burwood … because my community’s done the right thing.”

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Some have called for suburb-by-suburb hotspot restrictions, particularly for large LGAs where half the area is reporting few or no cases.

Bayside Council Mayor Joe Awada told Clinton Maynard he’d prefer for his whole constituency to be pulled from the hotspot definition.

“Why would you keep an LGA under lockdown if you’ve got lower cases, and higher … vaccination?”

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