“This is a long-term commitment and it is unfair to all the other councils that have been financing the campaign.” 

Mr Dickerson said it was unlikely come the next Centroc forum at the end of June Orange would be allowed back in without catching up on back payments.

 “All that marketing for Orange that we’ve been doing for the past six years will still be happening. They’ll still be picking up a benefit on whatever we do in Bathurst and Dubbo in particular,” he said. 

“It’s not something that we’ve discussed as a group, but I personally think that if Orange decided in two years’ time to re-join, well then they’d have to pay for the two years that they’ve been absent.” 

With an annual budget of $420,000, which will be reduced to $360,000 in the 2016/2017 financial year, Mr Dickerson believes the Evocities group of councils are getting tremendous value for money. 

“Considering how much it costs for advertising in Sydney, and our lack of state government funding, we’ve seen 2628 households relocate across the seven Evocities,” he said. 

Data released by Evocities indicates the 2628 households relates to more than 7000 people bringing, on average, $94,909 per household into the Evocities economies - a total of $249,420,852 per year across the seven cities. 

Since 2010 Evocities has spent $5,125,000 on promotional activities, 55 per cent of which was funded by the councils involved. 

Mr Dickerson said Evocities was now beginning to grab media traction and was often the first point of contact when Sydney media outlets wanted the voice of regional NSW. 

“When the median house price in Sydney hit $1 million, they called us. We’ve been contacted by Sydney newspapers, radio and TV, all of that is free publicity. We’re now really starting to mean something,” he said.