Councillors voted to send a letter to the Independent Local Government Review Panel opposing the recommended amalgamation of Armidale Dumaresq, Guyra, Walcha and Uralla.

The letter claims Armidale would need to find an extra $28 million to maintain the city’s financial sustainability rating if a merger occurred.

“Our current ratepayer base will inherit the other councils’ asset and fiscal problems and be faced with significant rate increases over and above the 20 to 30 per cent we are looking at to be sustainable in our current operations,” the letter reads.

“Merging three weak and unsustainable councils with a moderately sustainable council means you will end up with one large unsustainable Council.”

While Armidale Dumaresq and Uralla were awarded “neutral” financial outlooks by NSW Treasury, Guyra and Walcha’s economic prospects were labelled “negative”.

Armidale Dumaresq mayor Jim Maher said council would only be open to the idea of amalgamation if the state government injected funding to address the assets backlog.

“This would only work if this new council didn’t need to immediately absorb the financial issues of the former councils, which would leave Armidale ratepayers with a huge burden,” he said.

While Council was more partial to the idea of county councils, he said safeguards needed to prevent minority votes from overruling the interests of the wider population.

“Potentially, six votes representing 30 per cent of the population could win the day over two representatives representing 70 per cent of the population, ratepayers and budget interests,” the letter reads.

Instead, the council proposed local boards to represent smaller local government areas.

Cr Maher said Armidale Dumaresq had not yet spoken to the other councils about the amalgamation, but would begin collaborating if the state government forced amalgamation.

“At the moment each council is arriving at its own decision,” he said.

“We’re getting in there early to put our position out there, but soon we’ll meet with the other councils.”