Cootamundra Shire Council wanted to amalgamate; they recognised change was necessary and savings and efficiencies could be made by joining councils together and working effectively. 

Together with Harden Shire Council, they came up with a proposal for the State Government to amalgamate Cootamundra and Harden Shires.

This proposal was held up as a gold standard that other councils could achieve; an example of councils working together, however instead of giving the proposal the green light, the State Government merged Cootamundra with Gundagai Shire Council and Harden with Young and Boorowa Shire Councils to create the new Hilltops Council. 

It has been an unhappy marriage with Gundagai from the beginning. 

They were a shire determined to stand alone and could not be swayed from this original stance. 

Now, with speculation mounting the controversial forced amalgamation plan will be unwound by a new Gladys Berejiklian government, it is unclear what will happen to Cootamundra. 

If a plebiscite is called and Gundagai removes themselves from Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council, Cootamundra is back to square one. 

They are on the dance floor without a partner, knowing they need to merge and having jumped through all the hoops put before them by the State Government only to end up back where they started. 

Will the government support another merger proposal to join Cootamundra and Harden if that is indeed still the will of the people? 

Will people back the original amalgamation proposal to join Cootamundra and Harden or will they be gun-shy of anything to do with Local Government amalgamations?

Who could blame people if they were reluctant to go through this again.

Former Cootamundra Mayor Jim Slattery has called for a rapid response from the State Government if they are indeed planning to give residents the option to de-merge. 

His is a call worth echoing – enough time and money has been spent and people deserve certainty now.