Cootamundra Gundagai mayor Councillor Abb McAlister has welcomed this morning’s announcement that the demerger of the council is set to go ahead after years of lobbying.
“It’s been a long and arduous process and one the community has backed all the way,” the mayor said.
“We have finally received the news we have been waiting for since 2016. Our communities have always insisted and persisted with the desire to govern their own patches. This is a decision for the people,” Councillor McAlister said.
CGRC Interim General Manager, Mr Roger Bailey said it will be business as usual whilst the intricacies of dividing the current structure into two separate identities is carried out.
“This decision now allows Council to implement the plans that have been sitting in the background for the demerger. There still is a lot of work to be done, and business will carry on as normal whilst we start on the division of assets, departments and systems.
More information, including timelines will be issued, with notices going out to all stakeholders as we move forward,” Mr Bailey said.
Minister Hoenig made the announcement at Gundagai and has said the path was now clear for Council to commence the detailed transition work to initiate the dissolution of the Cootamundra-Gundagai and establish two new councils.
The decision has come after many years of community and Council demands, to return the CGRC LGA to the former Cootamundra Shire Council and Gundagai Shire Council areas.
The mayor said the struggle to reach this point has come after three Boundaries Commission enquiries, two Members of NSW Parliament for the Cootamundra electorate, three Council terms, five Ministers for Local Government and a change in Government.
