The initiative aims to encourage Sydneysiders to move to regional cities such as Orange, Bathurst, Dubbo, Albury, Armidale, Tamworth or Wagga Wagga.

However, Orange City Council  spokesman Nick Redmond said the Evocities memorandum of understanding expires in June so all member councils would need to decide if they wanted to continue their involvement.

“The ongoing commitment will be the subject of a report to February’s council meeting,” Mr Redmond said.

“It will also be considered as part of the deliberations in establishing the budget for the 2015/16 year.”

Orange mayor John Davis said although it was hard to pinpoint how successful the program has been, Orange has had very positive growth in the past three to five years.

“When the federal government of the time came up with the proposal we were very happy with the program,” Cr Davis said.

“I thought it was very productive and before it’s time.

However, Cr Davis said while the program showed what Orange had to offer, there could be multiple reasons someone might choose to move to Orange and it may not happen immediately.

“I know there’s some thoughts at the present time about whether it’s relevant now and whether it’s worthwhile,” he said.

Some Dubbo councillors publicly questioned the worth of the project last week and called for a review and for the state government to come on board.

However, Evocities spokesman James Treloar said he believed both Orange and Dubbo would choose to continue their involvement, which costs each council $70,000 a year.

He said the Evocities job website was a key platform for encouraging people to move to the area with 1.2 million people having looked at the site where 7000 jobs have been advertised.

“What we do know is the seven cities are all above the average for west of the [Great Dividing Range] and of the seven cities, all but one are running in line with the state average, Orange is above that state average,” Mr Treloar said.

He said people moving from Sydney were a key factor in determining the state averages and the role of Evocities was to dispel preconceived notions about regional cities.

“What people don’t realise when you are talking about Orange or Bathurst or Dubbo you are talking about a population similar to Strathfield or Manly local government areas,” Mr Treloar said.

Brand Orange executive officer Rhonda Seers said it was a great program and was created for the right reasons but there needed to be more awareness of Evocities.

tanya.marschke@fairfaxmedia.com.au