I was, and still am, strongly against the proposed forced amalgamation with Orange City Council as I believe the merger would have brought no advantages whatsoever to rural communities.

I have several concerns with the small number of people agitating for boundary changes.

I have not been consulted and I don’t believe they have consulted anyone other than those in their own small group. How do they know they represent the wishes of everyone in the areas they are proposing to move into Orange City?

They have not publicly articulated either the scope of the boundary changes (ie: who is in and who is out) or the alleged benefits for anyone other than themselves.

The group has threatened to take their proposal to the NSW government without any mandate for those in the effected area.

I am a member of the NSW Farmers Association and it was reported that they supported boundary changes. To the best of my knowledge this has not been raised formally with members in the affected area. No minutes of any branch meeting where boundary changes may have been discussed or raised have been circulated.

Cabonne Council currently maintains many kilometres of roads within the Cabonne area. Many of these roads were not constructed to carry the amount and type of traffic that use the roads today. This includes heavy transport and other forms of transport owned by agencies that do not pay Cabonne Council rates.

It has been stated that some residences do not receive services that they could receive if they were part of Orange. It is in fact the case that services such as garbage collection can be easily arranged for their area. Packman conduct an excellent collection service.

This group is taking a similarly undemocratic path as the NSW government did on the forced mergers and I am against any change.

CLEARLY the mayor of Cabonne Council is concerned, even worried, about the prospect of losing that council’s very highly rated properties on the outskirts of Orange.

If those disgruntled ratepayers take their complaints to the boundaries commission and the boundaries are changed, Cabonne would lose these properties, in which case Cabonne would become nonviable.

So Cabonne’s mayor is suggesting a very (expensive) referendum to decide which local government area these properties are in; for all Cabonne ratepayers to vote for.

I believe it is no business of all Cabonne’s ratepayers, only the business of those owners of the highly-rated properties on the outskirts of Orange.

CONGRATULATIONS to all involved in transforming Orange City Library into a modern, bright and welcoming new library.

In my opinion all the new changes in our spacious library have been carefully planned and thought out. Call in and see for yourself and also continue to experience the very good service offered at Orange City Library.