Albury Council and Albury MLA Greg Aplin are hurtling towards an inevitable, and messy, collision course.

Mayor Henk van de ven believes Mr Aplin is failing to do his job, advocating for the city’s prosperity, while Mr Aplin states the council’s inability to provide sufficient documentation to the NSW government is hindering its grant applications.

Each party is frustrated with the other – that much is plain.

Mr Aplin at the perception he can’t secure funding nor fight for the community and Cr van de Ven with the assessment the council has bungled its processes. 

In a letter obtained by The Border Mail, the long-term member laid blame squarely at the local government. “Again, I find myself having to take an Albury mayor and GM through the state budget process, explaining the difference between a budget line item and program or grant allocations. This should be well understood,” he wrote.

While several councillors have pot-shotted Mr Aplin in recent times, he has remained stoic – until now.

Tackling commercial in confidence issues surrounding the Davey Road interchange, he said: “Credibility suffered and I maintained silence in the face of regular media attacks by councillors to protect council’s local credibility on the matter”.

It’s apparent Mr Aplin and the council’s relationship is at breaking point.

Simmering frustrations about funding stagnation has also boiled over in recent weeks for Cr van de Ven.

He has previously described his incredulity at Albury’s funding discrepancies with other major NSW inland cities. 

“We keep getting told by high-level ministers, like the treasurer (Gladys Berejiklian), that Greg does advocate for these projects on our behalf, but we don’t get the funding and that’s the part that’s disappointing,” he said on July 8.

Albury needs its MP and council on the same wavelength, for the betterment of the city. Friction can be overcome and channelled productively but a fractious relationship does no one any good.

It’s likely the majority of Mr Aplin biggest critics on the council will be returned next month, which means this problem isn’t going away anytime soon. This stoush, ultimately, doesn’t benefit Albury ratepayers – as a partnership with synergy would.