More than 350 people packed into the Guyra Bowling Club with standing room only yesterday at the boundary commission’s public inquiry into the planned merger of Armidale Dumaresq Council with Guyra Shire.

Many speakers told of there being no community interest between the shires, with Guyra focused on agriculture and Armidale focused on education.

Guyra Shire mayor Hans Hietbrink used his opportunity to again hose down any suggestion there was any financial benefit from the amalgamation. “It's obvious to me that KPMG have applied a generic formula across council merger proposals to show these savings,” he said.

“The $5 million over 20 years is non-existent.”

Cr Hietbrink claimed there would be no benefit for either council if the proposed merge went ahead.

“We see no financial benefit to either council from this merger proposal other than the $15 million incentive

“It’d be far better for the government, I would say facetiously, to simply give each council a pro rata amount of the $15 million to remain independent,” Cr Hietbrink said which was met with applause from the crowd.

The Guyra mayor pointed at other perceived holes in the proposal, noting potential benefits for infrastructure.

“The proposal refers to opportunities for improved services and infrastructure that they see coming from these savings they claim,” he said. “The services that could be funded by the savings include improvement to road and rail infrastructure, interestingly the rail ends in Armidale.”

NSW Legislative Council member Scot MacDonald stood out among the speakers declaring his support for the merge.

“We’re living on a financial near-death experience year to year,” Mr MacDonald said about Guyra Shire. 

“We share employment, things like sport, education, the airport I think there’s great social connection between the two regions.”

Mr MacDonald said size was holding the region back and hinted at the bigger merge option as a better option. “We can sell ourselves as a regional council, there are 

opportunities there,” he said.

“We're in competition with regional centres across the state, I think we have to get that scale and capacity to do that.

“This is about intergenerational equity, I appreciate the passion here, but this is about what’s happening, five years, 10 years and 15 years time.”

Board member James Jackson said the NSW Farmers were completely opposed to the proposed merger. 

“Agriculture requires a unique set of governance skills,” he said.