Boorowa, Harden and Young Councils recently received a draft report from a consultant who has been reviewing options for the Councils in relation to the NSW Local Government Reform process.
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Each of the Councils have expressed disappointment with the draft report and given the consultant a mandate to go and fix the report so that it more accurately and comprehensively explains the options that have been investigated.
"We are extremely committed to keeping our communities informed and at this stage we don't believe there is any value in the community reading a DRAFT report that is incomplete and being improved," Harden Mayor John Horton said.
On December 11 the Mayors and General Managers of Boorowa and Young Councils met with the Local Government Minister, Paul Toole (Harden had prior commitments) to keep him informed of what the councils had received to date and how investigations were progressing.
At the meeting, the Mayor's present expressed their disappointment to the Minister that they do not yet have a report ready to release to the public.
"The Minister was very understanding of our position and he did not want to see the report until necessary changes had been made and the Councils were provided with a final report which was ready to be publicly released," Young Shire Mayor John Walker said.
It is now considered unlikely that the report will be made public prior to Christmas, with the Councils believing it is important that the consultants get the report right and completed before the public review it and the councils begin their consultation processes.
"We had hoped to have something for the community to review prior to Christmas, however we don't see the value in making something public that we believe would only serve to create more questions for the community than it answers," Boorowa Mayor Wendy Tuckerman said.
-Boorowa Council