Dubbo Residents and Ratepayers Association president Merrilyn Mulcahy said after years of lobbying council, she wanted to be part of the decision making.
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Ms Mulcahy has nominated for the south ward, alongside candidate Greg Mohr who together are running as part of the Ben Shields Team in the upcoming Dubbo Regional Council elections.
She said her role as ratepayers' president for the last 10 years had fuelled her interest in becoming a councillor.
"I'm very much involved, I've always got a comment about what's happening in Dubbo and taking the council to task over various issues," she said.
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"There's things I've been working on for a long time myself, so that's why I thought it might be to my advantage if I was a representative of the people in a council situation, and that maybe I could really work harder to bring those things forward."
This is the third time Ms Mulcahy has run for local council elections, but said that hasn't stopped her from putting her hand up again. She admitted she felt it was time for a change at council.
"I have this little idea that I believe in, the five R's for council - that's rates, roads, rubbish, rivers and residents," she said.
"That's what councils are about."
Despite living in the Wellington ward, Ms Mulcahy said she decided to run in the south ward as she believed the area was facing some significant changes in the future, particularly with zoning.
"I don't want to see things wrecked in the south. I can see there could be some issues coming up there that could affect that area very dramatically," she said.
In her time as president she has been a strong voice on a number of issues, including the proposal of an alternate bridge built at Troy Bridge Road, which would then create a Dubbo bypass.
"I've been wanting the ring road or bypass, to be brought forward from 2046, right through to now. This is when we need it," she said.
"I don't want the River Street Bridge to come into existence, it's not going to work for us. I want the money to be spent on a ring road."
She has been a strong advocate for this proposal as she believes its necessary for Dubbo.
"We have a lot of traffic come in through this city, and we need to upgrade that Newell Highway so its comfortable for truck drivers, for grey nomads, whoever comes through our city," she said.
"It [will] also encourage business to come to our city and not bypass it, so that's very important. Because that's the other thing I'm keen to see new businesses settled here."