What sparked the fierce RSL and council land debate

Each week I receive a column from Dubbo Regional Council mayor Mathew Dickerson, where he explains what is happening at council and quite often he will provide an insight into the decisions they are making.

It runs in the print edition of the Daily Liberal. At times in the past it has also run online.

The column that we ran on April 23 from the mayor gave his view on the deal that has been discussed between the council and Dubbo RSL about exchanging two parcels of land.

I didn't know it at the time, but the mayor's words would spark a fierce debate about the negotiations between the RSL and council.

The council wants the old Dubbo City Bowling Club site owned by the RSL, and discussed exchanging it for a block in Keswick Estate where the RSL could build a new club.

The mayor's comments prompted a response from RSL general manager Gus Lico. He sent me an email with a letter that we used as the basis for a story by Allison Hore, which we published last Monday morning after Allison had received further comments from the mayor in response to the RSL. You can read that one here: Revealed: The real reason the RSL backed out of land swap.

But that wouldn't be the last we heard of the issue.

On Monday, Allison and I received emails from the council's media team disputing the RSL's side of the story.

The council staff were also concerned that while the mayor had been contacted, the council itself had not been asked for an "organisational response". I had not heard that term before, but I think I get what they mean.

So we had a follow-up story on the issue, which we published later in the week, and you can read that one here: Two blocks of land and two different versions of events.

I thought that headline sums up the issue succinctly. I'm sure we haven't heard the last of this issue and we continue to keep you informed.

Thanks for reading and I hope you have a great week.

Laurie Bullock

Editor, Daily Liberal