Dubbo Regional Council is unlikely to raise any issues at the upcoming Local Government NSW conference.
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The annual conference will be an online event this year due to COVID-19. It will be held on Monday, November 23.
The event will not only give local government representatives an opportunity to vote on council issues, but will involved panels on COVID-19 recovery and building resilience.
Dubbo mayor Ben Shields and deputy mayor Stephen Lawrence are both on the LGNSW board, which means they are voting delegates. In addition to that, four councillors will also be chosen to represent Dubbo Regional Council.
"I discussed the upcoming conference with councillors before the most recent council meeting to gauge their interest. The change to a virtual conference this year means councillors will have to balance the event with their regular employment," Cr Shields said.
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"At this stage most councillors indicated they would happy to be considered but couldn't verify their availability. As such it was decided that closer to the cut-off date of Tuesday, November 3 I would liaise with councillors to finalise who Dubbo's four delegates would be."
So far, there are no motions Dubbo council plans to raise at the conference.
"One of the advantages of having two councillors on the board is that we are able to raise issues on behalf of Dubbo without having to wait for the annual conference so it is unlikely we will be submitting any motions this year," the mayor said.
The LGNSW conference was initially supposed to be held in Cessnock, but the decision was made to go virtual to meet the COVID-19 health and safety requirements.
"These difficult economic times have shown it's more important than ever that we stand together as a sector in whatever format we can to advocate for what our communities need - be it bushfire recovery assistance, COVID-19 stimulus funding or more public spaces," LGNSW said.
Currently, the 2021 LGNSW Annual Conference is scheduled for November 16 to 18 in Sydney.