Cabonne Council voted unanimously to remain a standalone Council on Tuesday night, resolving to submit a Council Improvement proposal to the State Government as part of the Fit for the Future reforms.
With modelling by independent consultants Morrison Low indicating the financial benefit of merging would amount to just $40,000 a year over a decade, Cabonne Council agreed that a standalone Council could make far greater long term improvements. The Council will submit their proposal to the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal, whose final recommendations will be made to the State Government in October.
The Council’s vote reflected the requests voiced by an overwhelming amount of residents in Cabonne to reject the proposal to merge with Orange City Council, a recommendation from the Independent Local Government Review Panel.
After almost 340 people attended information sessions in Molong and Canowindra on earlier in May to show their support of the stand-alone proposal, the wider community organised the ANTY (Amalgamation – No Thank You) meeting on May 21st to which nearly 400 people attended.
As a result of the meeting, the Cabonne ANTY Campaign Steering Committee, supported by representatives from each village, was created to formally oppose the amalgamation proposal. “We will take the voice of the people of Cabonne to the highest level of Government for it to be made known what we will lose once and for all should we become a part of a fragmented City establishment,” said ANTY Committee member representative Marj Bollinger.