Mr Warren said last week's announcement by the minister for local government, Shelley Hancock, that she would invite public submissions on demerging the Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council (CGRC) was a "blatant stalling tactic".

"She should call a plebiscite for the people to decide whether their council should demerge, so the issue can be put to bed," he said.

Mr Warren described the government's process of inviting submissions and then referring the matter to Boundaries Commission as "ripping the band-aid off slowly".

"Ratepayers just want this matter resolved once and for all," he said.

"A vote to demerge would be a major public embarrassment for this government and that is why the minister is doing her best to stall making a decision."

At the October meeting of the CGRC a councillor predicted financial losses from the 2016 merger of the shires would still be felt in another ten years.

Cr David Graham spoke during discussion of a September conference at Terrigal on Life After Amalgamation, attended by 16 councils.

He said there had been substantial losses since the amalgamation three years ago, and the ten-year plan showed they weren't going to go away.

"We've got four budgeted potential special rate rises which I don't believe will be very palatable to any community member or ratepayer.

"It's great to say don't judge it by 3 years but we're looking at 13 years and we're not seeing any positives."