Region strengthened with Local Councils & RDA collaboration

Northern Inland NSW will gain significant strength from a collaborative working relationship established at a meeting in Armidale last week between the 13 Northern Inland Local Government Areas and Regional Development Australia Northern Inland (RDANI) with four major issues identified as priorities.

RDANI Chairman Mal Peters said he was keen to get moving on finding innovative solutions with the councils, including a focus on the NBN across the region, a region wide promotion of business and living opportunities, a regional transport plan and a cheap reliable energy source.

The community leaders at the meeting agreed a Northern Inland whole-of-region approach to the attraction of new residents and businesses should be commenced but recognising each town will have their own specific messages to communicate. They also agreed a Northern Inland NBN-ready message needs to be relayed to NBN Co and the federal government so a rapid rollout happens in the region.

Mr Peters said the representatives present agreed the capacity of our region to move freight around was becoming a competitive disadvantage to our region and a region wide transport plan should commence identifying the extent of the problems, the economic cost and the funding opportunities to fix our road, rail and air corridors.

“A further concern to arise was access to a cheap and reliable energy source such as natural gas, a key requirement to attracting large scale manufacturing to the region. Indeed, one Local Council is currently in negotiation for a significant multi-million project that will require access to natural gas to proceed,” Mr Peters said.

RDANI will now hold meetings with their 13 LGAs on a much more regular basis to progress regionally significant projects and initiatives and report back on progress-to-date of the issues on the table.

The Northern Inland region of NSW encompasses the 13 Local Government Areas of Armidale Dumaresq, Glen Innes Severn, Gunnedah, Gwydir, Guyra, Inverell, Liverpool Plains, Moree, Narrabri, Tamworth Regional, Tenterfield, Uralla and Walcha.