Councillors Janelle Culverson, Lachie MacSmith and Michael Hayes resigned at Tuesday’s meeting after allegations were made by mayor Ian Gosper against an unnamed councillor in October.

The incident was followed by a letter published in the Molong Express earlier this month naming the three councillors as part of a “deal group”.

It was later retracted along with a blog post on Molong Online and apologies were issued.

A spokesman for eastern Cabonne residents wanting to join Orange, Guy Gaeta, called for NSW Local Government Minister Gabrielle Upton to appoint an administrator on Wednesday, saying the allegations made by the mayor were serious.

“There is no proof that anything illegal has been done but when the mayor makes an accusation in an open council chamber, they need to be investigated by an independent body and an administrator needs to be appointed,” he said.

“I know all three personally and they are good respected people of Cabonne and they’ve been pushed out.”

Problems started in October when councillors voted to appeal to the NSW Supreme Court against the proposed merger, but Mr MacSmith had second thoughts and put forward a rescission motion.

“I thought we’d gone wrong and there was one councillor away,” he said.

But when it was discussed, Cr Gosper alleged a councillor he did not name had rung other councillors promising deals from the state government if the council did not appeal the Land and Environment Court decision.

“We let it go,” Mr MacSmith said.

Mr MacSmith confirmed he and Mr Hayes had been in talks with state government representatives, but they were intended to safeguard the Cabonne community in case the merger was enforced and the mayor had attended one of the meetings.

The matters discussed included keeping offices at Cudal and Molong open, funding set aside for the villages and equal representation.

“Cabonne is 17 times the size of Orange, imagine being one of the two Cabonne councillors – it wasn’t even,” Mr MacSmith said.

“Janelle had no involvement in the meetings.”

Mr MacSmith said discussions occurred before the meeting to explain the rescission motion but he was unaware of any caucusing.

Mrs Culverson said she approached acting general manager Stephen Harding to ask Cr Gosper to correct the record.

“The first request was flatly refused and to date, a response to the second request has not been received,” she said.

Mrs Culverson said she no longer had faith in the council and the team persona the council portrayed was “a sham and a farce”.

She said telling her children about the allegations was the most difficult discussion she had to make.

“They said ‘surely anyone who knows you knows that’s not true’, but not everybody knows you,” she said.

Mr MacSmith said ratepayers had asked him why he could not remain involved after the allegations were retracted and he said he had to put family first.

“The damage has been done,” he said.

“All three of us have businesses to run, we’re not retired.

“Janelle and I put a lot of work into [the library], it would have been nice to finish a few projects.”

An Office of Local Government spokesman said administrators were generally appointed to run councils when they fell apart.

“As the council is still well above quorum that won’t need to happen,” he said.

Cr Gosper rejected any suggestion the council was dysfunctional and while he respected east Cabonne residents’ wishes for boundary adjustments, their public outcry was opportunistic.

“This group has used the situation to push its cause, but there is no basis for its claims,” he said.

Cr Gosper said since the vacancies occurred within 18 months of an election, the council could ask to avoid a byelection.

Mr Hayes could not be reached for comment.