Dungog councillors remain divided over Port Stephens council’s push to merge with the Dungog Local Government Area.
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Councillors also remain divided over the reliability of a Dungog Shire Community Group petition of 1786 signatures, which was submitted to council earlier this month to show resident support for a Dungog-Port Stephens merger.
Councillor Glenn Wall moved a motion at a council meeting on Tuesday to accept the Dungog Shire Community Group petition and include it in the council’s submission to the state government.
The council papers put forward three options on the matter – do nothing, reject the petition, or accept the petition and support the merger proposal with Port Stephens.
Cr Wall gained the support of councillors Stephen Farrow, Tracy Norman and Nancy Knudsen.
Councillors Neville Bale, Linda Bowden, Tony McKenzie, deputy mayor Robert Booth and Dungog mayor Harold Johnston voted against the motion.
Cr Johnston said he had been “bullied and intimidated to take a certain position” on the merger issue and he “wont succumb to that”.
Councillor Nancy Knudsen raised concerns about the petition but voted in favour of the motion and thought it could be acknowledged in the council’s submission.
Councillor Linda Bowden said she did not want the petition included in the council’s submission.
“It’s great the community wanted to do the poll,” Ms Bowden said.
“I have a problem with it being included in the submission. I don’t have a problem with the group putting it forward as part of their submission.”
Port Stephens councillor Ken Jordan spoke to the chamber before the matter was brought up and said a Maitland councillor had made it clear that Maitland didn’t want Dungog.
He said a Maitland councillor had told him a merged Maitland-Dungog councillor would be larger than the ACT.
Maitland mayor Peter Blackmore has remained open to the idea of taking on Dungog, if the state government forces them to merge.
