THE former Urana Shire has been temporarily left without a voice on the Federation Council local representative committee after three former councillors including ex-mayor Pat Bourke quit.
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The departures of Mr Bourke, John Doyle and Ian Kreutzberger were confirmed at the Federation Council meeting on Tuesday and follows the exit of another former Urana councillor, Alan Urquhart, in the lead-up to Christmas.
Former Corowa mayor Paul Miegel, Daryl Davey and Fiona Schirmer are the only original members of the committee formed soon after the merger of Corowa and Urana shires last year.
Gail Law was added to the committee to replace Francesco Bruinsma, who was the first to quit.
Another former Corowa mayor, Fred Longmire, also departed late last year when administrator Mike Eden decided to cut the size of the committee to seven.
Mr Eden flagged a further reduction to five, but has back-tracked and will keep the committee at seven until the council budget is handed down.
The committee will be totally disbanded once campaigning for the September elections begin with a majority of past and present committee members expected to stand for election.
Nine councillors will be elected with Federation Council not to be divided into wards.
Mr Bourke and Mr Miegel have rotated the role of committee chairman.
Mr Bourke said his reasons for stepping down were shared by Mr Doyle and Mr Kreutzberger.
"We started off with good ambitions, but unfortunately things haven't panned out the way we wanted them to," Mr Bourke said.
"We certainly haven't given up on our communities.
"We wouldn't do that."
Mr Bourke declined to elaborate further.
Mr Eden acknowledged the loss of the three former Urana councillors was a setback.
"It is disappointing that the northern end of the council area has lost three very experienced and committed voices on the LRC," he said.
"But I am confident in the next two to three weeks we will have some suitable replacements."
LRC members are paid their former councillor allowance.
They were allowed to speak for the first time during a council meeting on Tuesday, but still cannot vote on agenda items.
The LRC's role is is to provide advice to the administrator on community views and issues.
Mr Eden's biggest decision to date is the appointment of general manager Chris Gillard for the next four years.
