Five out of the council’s seven councillors have declared a pecuniary interest in the mine as they or members of their families are employees of the mine’s operator Newcrest.

Blayney Shire Mayor Bruce Kingham said that the council did consider

applying to the Minister for Local Government for an exemption for two councillors but decided it “would be a time consuming exercise for the staff of the council” to make applications for each councillor each time a decision relating to Cadia was on the council agenda.

Delegating the responsibility to the General Manager was “a more common sense approach”, Cr Kingham said.

“Every time there’s a decision to be made the Minister would have had to give authority for the two councillors with the least pecuniary interest in the mine to remain in the council chambers and vote,” he said.

“Because council doesn’t have a

quorum the simplest way is to give the General Manager the delegated authority to make decisions on behalf of Blayney Shire Council”.

The General Manager’s first task after the council’s decision will be to negotiate with Newcrest and the other two councils affected by the company’s new Cadia East mining development to distribute the Voluntary Planning Agreement which will see $8million spent on maintenance of road infrastructure and community enhancement in the council areas.

“The council has delegated the

authority to me to work with Cadia, Cabonne, and Orange councils,” General Manager Aaron Jones said.

“There is $8million in total over the life of the mine to divide between the councils. I'll be meeting with other General Managers and representatives from Cadia and the four parties will be negotiating their share.”