OBERON Council hasn’t given up the fight against its forced merger with Bathurst Regional Council despite a setback in the courts almost a week ago.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
A meeting of Oberon Council on Tuesday night resolved to use a number of measures, including a formal appeal against the court decision if needed, as the forced merger moves closer.
Oberon Council will seek an injunction to stay any action.
The contentious council merger was announced by the NSW Government in May but has been on hold since then due to Oberon’s challenge in the Land and Environment Court.
In a decision handed down last Friday morning, Chief Judge Brian Preston rejected the challenge launched by Oberon, Cabonne and Gundagai councils against their respective mergers and ordered the councils to pay the NSW Government’s costs in the proceedings.
Speaking last Friday, when the councils had been given until noon this Friday to appeal the decision, Minister for Local Government Paul Toole said “hundreds of thousands of dollars” might already have to be paid to the NSW Government as costs in the rejected challenge.
”We have seen a lot of money being spent through the legal system, and a lot of people just want to see a strong council serving across the area,” he said.
If there wasn’t an appeal, Mr Toole said, a new Oberon and Bathurst council could be proclaimed by the end of the month.
At its meeting on Tuesday night, Oberon Council resolved to lodge a notice of intention to lodge an appeal against the court judgement and seek agreement from the NSW Government not to take any further action prior to the determination of Woollahra Council’s appeal, or for seven days after.
The Woollahra case is based on a similar premise to Oberon’s case and Woollahra’s appeal was launched well before Oberon’s recent challenge rejection.
Should the NSW Government not agree, Oberon Council resolved to seek an injunction, or interlocutory orders, to stay any action and to consider lodging a formal appeal “subject to further advice from its counsel and consideration of council at its earliest convenience”.