Dubbo and Wellington had to amalgamate because the city couldn’t afford a “struggling council on its doorstep”, Mr Grant said on Tuesday.

“Dubbo City itself could have stood alone, there’s no doubt about that, the [IPART] report said that, but what the independent report said from the outset is for the long term benefit of Dubbo, it was a merged partnership with either Wellington or Narromine because to have Dubbo performing at its optimum it couldn’t afford to have a struggling council on its doorstep,” Mr Grant said.

It was announced on May 17 that Dubbo City and Wellington councils were amalgamating to form the Western Plains Regional Council.

The merged entity had its first meeting on Wednesday night, led by administrator Michael Kneipp.

The proposed budget was one of the first items on the agenda, and will now go on public exhibition.

While council decisions are normally voted on by the elected members of the public - that is, the councillors - all decision making rested in the hands of Mr Kneipp.

As per the proclamation, the meeting was conducted according to the Code of Meeting Practice of the former Wellington Council.

Members of the public were allowed five minutes to speak during the public access session.

Comments on the Daily Liberal Facebook page raised concerns about the amalgamation and the way funding would be distributed.

“Wellington will bleed Dubbo of essential services and its budget just wait and see,” one person wrote. 

A different comment said it was “another nail in the coffin for the smaller places as they lose more infrastructure and identity’’.

However, not all the posts were negative.

“Dubbo City Council needed a shakeup [and] it got it in the form of a merger with Wellington, a struggling council,” someone wrote.

“Yes it was doing good things, but in the end it wasn’t connecting the benefits together to make it work 100 per cent.”