Three of Canowindra’s four councillors standing for election at Cabonne Shire Council have openly declared they don’t support a vote to reduce the number of councillors in Cabonne to nine with the other saying he didn’t want to tell ratepayers which way they should vote.
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Anthony Durkin, Cheryl Newsom and Jenny Weaver all told a public meeting in Canowindra last week they didn’t support the vote to reduce the councillor numbers from 12 to nine.
Kevin Walker, Cabonne’s current deputy mayor told the meeting “I don’t intend to tell you which way to vote for council or for the referendum”.
Anthony Durkin, who has been a member of council for nine years told the meeting he believed keeping 12 councillors gave Cabonne a stronger team.
“Dropping the team size down to nine is not going to benefit us in anyway,” Mr Durkin told the meeting at the Canowindra Services Club.
“With 12 we can certainly get out and cover more area,” Mr Durkin said, a sentiment shared by candidates Cheryl Newsom and Jenny Weaver.
“It would appear that from the bit of research I have done, nine is the magic number,” Ms Newsom said in reference to Forbes, Weddin and Cowra Shire all having nine councillors.
She added however “we have to consider that Cabonne is made up of eight villages and not one main town like the other councils mentioned”.
“In order for us to have representation across the villages we should have a representation of 12.
“I think we should stick with the 12,” Ms Newsom said.
Jenny Weaver, who has previously served on Cabonne Shire said she too was in favour of retaining 12 councillors.
“I’d be in favour of 12, I believe Cabonne is an area of 12,000 square kms, it’s a huge area to cover.
“I believe the shire is far too big to be set up as a nine seat council,” Ms Weaver said.
When Cabonne ratepayers vote for a new council on September 9 they will also be asked if they to vote Yes or No to reduce the number of council representatives at future elections from 12 to nine.