Residents within the Dubbo local government area will now have the chance to vote on the future of the current ward system at the December 4 election.
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A motion of recission put forward by deputy mayor Anne Jones, and councillors Greg Mohr and David Grant was denied on Thursday's extraordinary council meeting.
This now means voters will be able to decide if the current ward system which splits the Dubbo LGA into five parts (equally based on population) will remain and if 11 councillors will be selected regardless of their location within the area.
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Councillors Jones, Mohr and Grant all believe the decision to abolish the wards would mean Wellington would be severely impacted and could possibly have as little as one representative on council for the next term.
"I'm really upset to say the least," Cr Jones said during the meeting.
"For so many years, Cr Grant particularly and I have worked to try and bring the Wellington and Dubbo community together. By doing this, what you are doing is putting another wedge [between the two]. There are enough wedges there already."
However, Cr Jane Diffey explained just because some of councillors were not part of the Wellington ward it did not mean they had ignored the region at all.
"Perhaps the referendum and changing the ward system to the one with 11 councillors will mean that there is an opportunity for the next council to make changes if they want," she said.
"I believe that there is the opportunity for Wellington to still be represented and have strong representation. I have spoken in favour for a number of things for Wellington. I've grown up in there area and are familiar with Wellington but I live in Dubbo.
"So there is no reason why someone from Dubbo familiar with the area can do as much justice as what Wellington elected councillors could do."
Councillors Jones, More and Grant were the only ones who voted to keep the wards.
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