Guyra locals will have two chances to make their voices heard on election day, Saturday, March 23.
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The Save and Grow Guyra group will hold a poll to see how many citizens support demerging from Armidale Regional Council, and re-establishing a Guyra Shire Council.
"If we don't reclaim our independence now, and fight for this, we're going to lose it forever," spokesman Gordon Youman said. "Don't give up, because this can happen, and will happen."
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The Save and Grow Guyra group will mail out poll forms to Guyra residents in the lead-up to the election, and collect them on election day at the booths. The group is determined to make the process credible and transparent. They plan to put the forms into a locked box, and have a JP or other unbiased person check the count.
Mr Youman had hoped the Electoral Commission would run the poll in conjunction with the election, with a ballot box and scrutineers, but the commission would not, he said, "say yes or no" to their running a plebiscite.
"With a change of government in March, we will have the opportunity to get Guyra council back," Mr Youman said.
The Liberal-National Coalition merged Guyra with Armidale Dumaresq Council in 2016, as part of their “Fit for the Future” scheme.
Amalgamation was expected to create new, stronger councils; improve council performance; strengthen local government; and deliver substantial savings and benefits for local communities, according to the NSW Office of Local Government's website - little of which has occurred, Mr Youman believes.
The forced merger, Mr Youman believes, has been ruinous for Guyra. The town, he thinks, has stagnated, with 15 businesses closing. The new council, in his opinion, is inefficient; ignores Guyra issues such as roads; and landed the town with a $3.8 million deficit (which council, in fact, recently brought down to $483,000).
"The full impact of the council amalgamation is yet to come," Mr Youman fears. He worries ex-Guyra council carry over staff will be dismissed, protected rates will end, and the public will face higher fees and charges from May.
The Coalition, Mr Youman said, ignored Guyra and other communities' opposition to the forced mergers.
"The government won office promising there would be no forced mergers," his poll brochure states. "We said 'We want to stay alone,' but they did not hear. We were steam rolled."
After several councils took legal action, the government only went ahead with 19 of the planned 35 mergers, before abandoning the scheme in July 2017.
Labor, the Greens, and the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party have all promised to reinstate the councils if they are elected – and if residents want it.
Even if the Coalition government is returned, Mr Youman believes the poll will be "good ammunition" to show popular support for demerger.
"It's wrong that the government's put across the message that it's all done and dusted," Mr Youman said. "It's not done and dusted, nowhere near it."
De-amalgamation, though, could be disastrous for the town, former Guyra councillors argue. Armidale Regional Council mayor Simon Murray – a Guyra resident, and the former council's deputy mayor – and Hans Hietbrink, Guyra's last mayor, have both said that the town struggled financially before the merger, and simply cannot afford to stand by itself.
Guyra, Cr Murray believes, has in fact benefited from the merger; the Malpas Dam pipeline will droughtproof the town, while many locals are happy with services, including mowing, cleaning up, and roads.
Far from ignoring Guyra issues, council meets regularly there (its first ordinary monthly meeting of the year was held in town last week), and has ambitious plans to develop the town for the next 30 years, including horticulture, clean technology, expanded festivals, and more visitors.
Mr Youman, though, points to evidence suggesting that forced amalgamations don't work.
Two think-tanks - the “free-market” Institute of Public Affairs, and the “progressive” Per Capita Australia - last year considered the mergers one of the worst policies in the country.
UNE researcher Andrea Wallace's paper argues that Barraba suffered when absorbed into Tamworth Regional Council in 2004; her study on Guyra will be out this year.
Other bodies are pushing for de-amalgamation. The Annual Conference of Local Government NSW last year supported communities seeking to demerge from a forcibly amalgamated council. The Queensland town of Stanthorpe is also trying to demerge from Southern Downs Regional Council 12 years after its amalgamation.