The money will be spent to bring existing plans forward as well as to fund new projects like the development of a master plan for the Dubbo Showground.

To date, Cr Shields said the council had saved $4 million in salaries, $200,000 in legal services, $400,000 in consultancies, $800,000 on contractors, $1.7 million from the realignment of infrastructure projects, $2.2 million from merger savings and $800,000 from the reconfiguration of council’s telephone system.

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Cr Shields said the savings weren’t due to widespread cuts. Rather, council had been taking things like legal services to the open market.

“It’s extraordinary the amount of money we’ve been able to find from savings rather than a slash and burn. Most of it has been through good financial management and because we’ve got a new reset attitude in Dubbo Regional Council,” he said.

The $4 million saving from staff came from quarantining the salaries from the 60 staff vacancies at the time of the merger, Cr Shields said, while cutting the phone system costs by $800,000 was due to consolidating mobile phone plans through to getting rid of phone connections that were no longer needed.

“We’re not just sitting on that money we’re actually rolling it out for better community infrastructure and better community facilities,” the mayor said.

As part of the savings, $4 million in the next four years will be spent on rural roads.

“Rural roads still remains the biggest complaint I get from people in this local government area and it’s only been intensified now we’ve taken on Wellington and their extensive road network,” Cr Shields said.

Another $2 million in savings is expected to be identified ones the accounts for the financial year are finalised.

The mayor said he had also asked council’s Chief Executive Officer to find additional savings through tenders for the provision of legal services and insurances, business improvement initiatives, a review of council’s approach to procurement and a review of services.

Projects to be funded from the savings: