MAYOR Col Murray says there is still value for Tamworth in the Evocities campaign as Orange City Council votes to opt out of the program from July 1.
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Earlier this week, Orange councillors voted, seven votes to four, to pull out of the campaign, despite apparently investing nearly half a million dollars into the program, citing a lack of state government funding as a major factor in the decision.
Cr Murray said Orange pulling the pin on Evocities would not change Tamworth’s commitment and definitely did not signal the “beginning of the end” of the regional marketing campaign.
“We believe we’re still getting people moving from Sydney to Tamworth,” Cr Murray said.
He pointed to recent Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) estimates showing constant growth in the region.
“It’s reflected in the new ABS data showing very consistent growth,” he said.
“Evocities has played a role in that.”
With Orange City Council dropping out, the Evocities program loses one seventh of its financial input from the regional councils involved, but Cr Murray says “the rest of the cities remain committed to it”.
Cr Murray said the council’s investment in the program was not “a huge amount”.
“It’s a only a small portion of our budget and a small portion of our marketing,” Cr Murray said.
Each council puts in $60,000 per year to the program; however, that figure is set to increase to $65,000 next financial year.
Fellow Evocities mayor Herman Beyersdorf told The Leader Armidale Dumaresq “remained committed” to the campaign.
While Cr Beyersdorf said the program was still manageable with six councils, he said it may be an idea to look at recruiting another council to fill the gap left by Orange’s imminent departure.
Evocities chairman and Dubbo City Council mayor Mathew Dickerson labelled the move by Orange council “disappointing” and “short-sighted”, believing it could be politically motivated to put more pressure on the state government to further fund the program.
“Orange have arguably done better than anyone out of it,” Cr Dickerson said in light of the city’s population swelling by 9.9 per cent since the last census.
Cr Dickerson said Tamworth, Armidale, Dubbo, Bathurst, Wagga Wagga and Albury councils had already committed for a further three years and that “now was not the time to throw it all out”.
