Cr Shields said it was up to association members if they wanted to tender for the Dubbo City Council contract for the provision of economic development services.

That role has until recently been performed by the Dubbo City Development Corporation (DCDC), formerly trading as Grow Dubbo, but advice from the Department of Local Government has changed that.

The advice requires the council to draw up a contract and put the service out to tender - but individuals

and organisations are not falling over each other for the part.

Comments on the Daily Liberal website calling on the Dubbo Ratepayers and Residents Association (DRRA) to tender for the role were not dismissed outright by Cr Shields or its president-in-waiting Greg Mohr yesterday.

The DRRA has been a vocal critic of the DCDC in the past and heavily supported Cr Shields’s anti-rate rise platform at the 2008 council election.

“Everything’s up to the members, you never say never in politics,” Cr Shields said.

Cr Shields refused to be drawn any further and denied that he had posted the comments on the website.

Mr Mohr said had not heard of the idea until the Daily Liberal contacted him yesterday.

He was similarly coy about committing the DRRA, saying it was up the association to decide.

He also denied any involvement with the website comments and thought someone may have posted them as a bit of a “stir”.

“It has never been brought up at a meeting,” he said.

Cr Shields did say that if the council decided to put economic development into the hands of an external agency next year, he would encourage as many individuals and organisations as possible to tender.

That would give the “biggest cross-section” and help produce “the most efficient and best result”.

Dubbo Chamber of Commerce and Industry was also canvassed for its intentions with the contract, but the “short answer” about whether it would tender was “no”.

Chamber president Warren Williams cited other commitments, but said the chamber would be interested to see who did respond to a potential call for tenders.

“The chamber’s responsibility is to support the existing business community in Dubbo,” he said.

“While we see the economic development role as important and attracting new business to town as important, it’s not practical for the chamber to attract new business to town and adequately support current business at the same time,” he said.

faye.wheeler@ruralpress.c om