The matter was decided in an extraordinary meeting of the council last night that was called to consider a rescission motion against a decision made on Monday night.

Councillors Tina Reynolds, Ben Shields and Ann Barnard were the authors of the rescission motion, but they came nowhere near attracting the numbers, meaning the council will enter into a six-month contract with the DCDC for the provision of economic development services at a contract fee of $130,000.

A majority of councillors also voted against a second rescission motion to overturn a decision to provide the DCDC with audio recordings of past council meetings.

In a sedate meeting of the council and which Cr Reynolds was unable to attend, Cr Shields acknowledged he was fighting a “losing battle”.

Nevertheless he urged his counterparts not to think of the DCDC as a “sacred cow” and said a number of questions about the corporation were unanswered.

He also said that advice from the NSW Government, which prompted the matter to come before the council, showed that they were “not happy” with the council.

“Our solution is to give them $130,000 as a stopgap - clearly that is not with the spirit of what the Department of Local Government said,” he said.

He also acknowledged that the purpose of the rescission motion was to seek advice from “organisations and individuals”.

With the rescission motion defeated after only attracting the votes of Crs Shields and Barnard, Dubbo mayor Allan Smith was able to claim the outcome was not just the one he wanted, but also “the outcome the council wanted”.

But he was quick to point out the vote only guaranteed the interim arrangement.

The successful motion has 12 points and includes changed key performance indicators, severing the representative links between the council and the DCDC, firm reporting requirements and more.