THE Greater Hume Shire has made it clear — it has no interest in a merger with Albury.
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The call for a merger was raised this year in a local government that suggested councils should work as hubs to create a regional vision with shared services staff.
And the state government last week said it had up to $1 billion to help those councils that were happy to push ahead with mergers.
But Hume’s mayor Heather Wilton — re-elected to the position yesterday — said a merger was “not for us”.
“The big issue for all of us in local government is the report about the future of local government and councils,” she said.
“Since our amalgamation in 2004 we’ve made many changes to our structure and the way we do business.
“We want a fair opportunity to put our case to government as a stand-alone rural council.
“We have to be united in our want to remain a rural shire.”
Cr Doug Meyer, who was re-elected as deputy mayor, said merger talks had achieved little.
“Albury doesn’t want us and we don’t want Albury,” he said.
“We’ve had discussions but we don’t intend to be a burden on Albury ratepayers.”
Cr Wilton said the council would consider the Joint Organisations model of hubs.
“We already do a lot of things with other councils — not necessarily Albury — to provide different services to other councils,” she said.
“That’s something we would continue to do.”
The council is also keenly awaiting a ruling from the NSW Land and Environment Court over a proposal for a compost centre at Gerogery.
The council last year told the southern joint regional planning panel to reject the centre, but the would-be operator, Transpacific Cleanaway, has since appealed against that decision.