Aileen MacDonald has announced she will stand in the Armidale Regional Council election.

“Guyra is at a crossroads,” Ms MacDonald said.

“Change is hard and we’ve had to accept a change overnight, one minute we were a shire council and the next we’re part of Armidale Regional Council.

“But, let’s look at the positives of what that can do for us, see what the negatives are and how we can overcome them.”

Ms MacDonald is one of three prospective councillors that will represent rural areas.

For Guyra to have an impact on Council, she feels the town needs to stand as a united front.

A member of the Liberal Party, but running as an independent - Ms MacDonald said this means finding common ground with the Guyra Amalgamation No Thank You Group.

“I respect their view, there’s a difference between respecting their view and being outright hostile to it,” she said.

“I respect that they don’t want to have an amalgamated Council, but if we had continued we would have had to have a 30 per cent rate rise.

“Did I accept that? No.”

Ms MacDonald said her focus is on ensuring Guyra residents get a fair rate on their properties once the rate freeze finishes.

Roads, rates and rubbish are all service levels she will fight to keep fair for Guyra.

A supporter of the amalgamation, Ms MacDonald said it’s time the community looked at the positives.

“One day we had two schools, now we have a university as part of our Council, we have the best regional art museum [NERAM], the airport - we can say that’s ours now,” she said.

The Renew Newcastle model is a project Ms MacDonald would like to see implemented in both towns.

The scheme works with shopfront owners to make spaces available to artists and community initiatives for short term use.

“It’s encouraging people to have a go, before that people would say no because insurance was too hard, so why bother?,” Ms MacDonald said.

“We need to take that away so they can bother.”