Regional Cities NSW will be an expansion of the inland forum presently chaired by Albury mayor Kevin Mack and made up also of Wagga, Dubbo, Tamworth,  Bathurst, Orange and Armidale.

It will be based on a similar model in Victoria where the 10 biggest cities in the state joined forces with Wodonga mayor Anna Speedie a former chairwoman of the group.

Regional Cities NSW won’t include Newcastle and Wollongong, but Coffs Harbour, Maitland, Griffith, Tweed, Cessnock, Lismore, Queanbeyan, Mid-Coast and Port Macquarie-Hastings have all been invited to join.

Director Tracey Squire said at a recent planning day it was agreed the overall success of the new group would be the creation of “connected, thriving and sustainable” regional cities.

“To this end, discussion took place on the establishment of a short-term agenda for RCNSW, to ensure that this new alliance was more than simply a talk-fest on regional issues, and rather had real actions and goals to work towards,” she said.

Ideas with the most support included a memorandum of understanding with the state government, how best the state government should spend the $4.2 billion in proceeds from the Snowy Hydro sell-off and a population strategy.

Mayors and general managers of each city will be part of RCNSW with Albury this week agreeing to spend $5000 on an initial membership fee.

Meanwhile, council has approved a $3.5 million solar panel system within its tip site.

LMS Energy had applied to install about 1400 solar panels.

Once up and running, the system will generate 1900 megawatt hours of power each year, which will feed into local energy distribution networks.

“It’s a no-brainer,” Cr Henk van de Ven said.