WITH Armidale and Guyra shire councils now under administration after their dissolution by proclamation yesterday afternoon, Guyra councillor Audrey McArdle and the Member for New England, Adam Marshall, agree the most important matter left to be dealt with is the boundary change that will bring Tingha into the Inverell Shire Council.
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Mrs McArdle said she thought the majority of Tingha residents would want to be included in the Inverell shire.
“Armidale is just too far away, we’ve got no interest whatsoever with Armidale,” she said.
“From Tingha’s point of view the government hasn’t thought this through at all.
The overwhelming view is that everyone’s happy with the boundary change, we just need to tick the legal boxes.
- Adam Marshall
“If we go to Inverell before this September I would run for the Inverell council to give Tingha a representative. I’d give it a go, I think.”
Local government elections will be held at Inverell on September 10, and Mrs McArdle served on the former Guyra Shire Council for 17 years.
Mr Marshall said the boundary changes for Tingha will be foremost when he holds talks with the new council’s administrator, Dr Ian Tilley,.
“The Tingha issue is first and the council name change is the second,” Mr Marshall said.
“The overwhelming view is that everyone’s happy with the boundary change, we just need to tick the legal boxes. There’s a process under the Act that we have to go through and I just want to get that started as soon as possible.”
Mr Marshall said he would attempt to have the changes done in time Tingha residents to vote in the September elections.
Meanwhile new positions were created to oversee the running of the new Armidale council until its scheduled election, due in September 2017. Dr Tiley has appointed former Armidale general manager Glenn Wilcox as interim general manager and Guyra council general manager Peter Stewart was appointed as interim deputy general manager.
