Maitland councillors are cowards for voting to accept Dungog Shire Council as their preferred merger partner, the mayor of Dungog says.
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Dungog councillors dug in their heels in a last stand against the state government’s push for the two councils to merge at an extraordinary meeting on Monday night.
It came on the same night that Maitland councillors bowed to the state’s pressure for a joint venture, to avoid the possibility of being sacked and an administrator put in their place.
Dungog mayor Cr Harold Johnston blasted Maitland’s decision on Tuesday morning.
“They are a bunch of cowards,” he told the Mercury.
“This has turned into a political process and the rational process has gone out the window.
“For the sake of being in the tent for the next eight months, they have gone against all reason. I thought they might have had a bit more guts than that.”
Both Maitland and Dungog councils were deemed unfit for the future under a state commissioned assessment of councils across NSW.
Dungog Shire has mounting financial problems, but there has been a feeling among people aligned with both councils that Maitland was unfairly judged as unfit for the future in order to make an amalgamation appear necessary.
Mayors across the state received a letter last week with an indirect, thinly veiled threat that councils that did not get on board with a recommended merger would be sacked.
Cr Johnston said he expected the state government would probably dismiss Dungog councillors after Monday night’s vote.
But he insisted that the strong stance was the right thing for communities in the Dungog local government area.
“It’s a devastation of representation of rural areas right across the state,” Cr Johnston said.
“An amalgamation will put the new council into a different tier, which will mean less money in FAG (Financial Assistance Grants) money and road funding will go way down.
“We will lose a million dollars in funding.”
Maitland council’s decision on Monday night came despite all councillors having expressed their vigorous opposition to a merger with Dungog.
But last week’s threat of dismissal appeared to impact most councillors’ final decisions.
The majority, except Crs Ben Whiting, Loretta Baker and Robert Aitchison, voted to nominate Dungog Shire as Maitland’s preferred merger partner so the current crop of councillors could remain in office to help influence the shape of the new-look council.
They believed it was in the Maitland community’s best interest that an administrator not be appointed.
The decision means it would take an unprecedented, and highly unlikely, back-flip from the state for a joint venture between Maitland and Dungog not to be announced when the government makes its final ruling next month.
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