EMOTIONS ran high among the 56 speakers at three public inquiry meetings held in Wellington and Dubbo last week, where an overwhelming majority were succinct in telling Boundaries Commission Public Inquiry delegate, Dr Ian Tiley, they opposed an amalgamation of Dubbo City and Wellington councils.
More than 446 people attended the three meetings – 165 in Wellington’s morning meeting, 152 at Dubbo in the afternoon and 129 that evening.
Only two speakers in Dubbo and five in Wellington supported a merger.
Dubbo mayor Matthew Dickerson said there was a vast difference between the two council areas and there was no mining history commonality between the two areas as stated in the KPMG merger proposal.
“We have demonstrably different communities – this is a simple case of a square peg trying to be driven very forcibly by our state government into a round hole,” he said.
“Leave the round hole and square peg beside each other. We are quite happy living next door to each other and let’s leave it like that.”
Wellington farmer and former councillor, John Trounce, said his choice would be to have a combination of councils with a secretariat in a main centre that would employ “top-line people” who would advise staff.
Wellington resident Alison Conn said the local government area would lose its independence and voice.
“The merger will make a battling town ever poorer,” she said.
Dubbo’s Phil Priest said both the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal Fit for the Future report and KPMG merger proposals focused on statistics, cost savings and calculations.
“They ignore the things that cannot be counted, a sense of belonging, a sense of community,” he said.
- Note: The Land’s Dubbo journalist Mark Griggs is a Wellington Shire councillor.
