Without support from the community we will be swallowed up by an Armidale controlled new council area and Guyra will become a forgotten village slowly decaying as has happened to so many NSW country towns. 

We shall be under represented, have ridiculously high rates and have a loss of jobs. Without doubt, there will be cutbacks to the services we have at present. These negatives will have a ripple effect throughout the community and believe me, we will all be worse off.

I ask anyone who has the chance to send a submission to the Boundaries Commission to do so. Their website has a provision for people to write a submission. It can be accessed on www.councilboundaryreview.nsw.gov.au and follow links to Guyra. It is necessary to use this site for submissions or to register for attendance at the public inquiry to be held at the Bowling Club. Alternatively, you can register by phoning 1300813020.

Some questions must be asked of this inquiry:

• How and why some Councils designated as “not fit for the future” had their designation changed. Why not Guyra?

Do we only get a representative to answer our questions while the decision makers remain in Macquarie St. unconcerned?

• Why the hurry. This move by the Government is being done in record time?

• How does this proposal fit their policy on decentralization?

Two of the most pertinent questions, I believe, are:

• Why did the Government see it necessary to bypass both houses of Parliament? 

• Until now the Government have not said one word about how it will improve the running and services provided?

  Unless we unite and make a concerted effort to have this irrational and undemocratic proposal wiped off the table we will all regret not having done so.

This amalgamation experiment was tried in Qld and some NSW Council areas and as yet, no one has identified any cost savings or streamlining of the day to day running of the larger councils. Only, as I have indicated, a loss of identity and the decline of community for the smaller partners.

Ray Mulligan