Mark Coulton was elected Mayor of Gwydir at the first Council meeting he attended. With no wards, the nine Councillors are elected to represent the whole of the new Shire. Included amongst the nine are four former mayors and one former President of the NSW Shires Association, so Mayor Coulton believes the Council has a good balance of experience and new blood.
“The Bluett Award win is a great achievement but it has not been all plain sailing,” Mark Coulton said. “Amalgamation can bring out the best and worst in people. Initially rumours ran rife, as well as various negative letters to the papers. Staff were required to merge into the one organisation amongst all of this, and to my knowledge they didn’t slip up anywhere.”
He said that with a large area and small rate base, staff have readily taken up the challenge to find the best ways to improve services for the community by continually raising the bar.
“This in turn has greatly lifted their morale with our General Manager, Max Eastcott, pivotal in this,” Mayor Coulton said. “To maintain core staff numbers in both Bingara and Warialda, it was important to grow the organisation. One way of achieving this has been the successful tendering for work for neighbouring Councils.”
Mark Coulton said that the Shire has a number of vibrant village communities with many young families.
“New housing is an issue with Council battling to keep up with new subdivisions, and like most areas, we have a shortage of tradesmen,” he said. “At the same time, our big drawcard is our ample water supply. The proposed new inland rail will further stimulate growth but it is vital we have a good, well maintained road network to support this.
“There is still a lot to do but Council winning the Bluett Award has further raised the confidence of staff, and had a positive spin off across the whole of the community. There is a strong belief that things can be done and are being done but the key is that all our decisions are being made on merit not on trying to spread the money round geographically.”
