More on the Council election:
MORE than 45 kilometres outside of Guyra lies Aberfoyle, home of election candidate Simon Murray.
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Looking out for the little guy, Mr Murray will represent rural concerns in the September election.
“I’m not a true politician, I’m not into politics much,” Mr Murray said.
“The reason I put my hand up is because the focus is going to keep going back to Armidale, but hang on, there’s things outside of Armidale.
“What’s happening in Wollomombi, what’s happening in all of these other little spots?”
Former deputy mayor of Guyra Shire Council, Mr Murray is a fierce opponent of the council merger.
“I don’t consider it a merger,” he said.
“It’s never going to be a merger as soon as you get a big group and a little group, the minority will get swallowed up.
“I’ve got to fight against all of those councillors that are happy with the merger, happy with Armidale and don’t necessarily want to spend a lot of money outside Armidale.”
Mr Murray said his focus is on promoting the whole region as a premier agricultural area.
“When you look at the number of studs we have – we’ve got the tomato farms, the trout farms, we should be promoting that,” he said.
With a background in engineering, Mr Murray would like to see a better water supply for the Guyra Shire.
“That’s one thing we started when I was on Council and I’d like to see it finished,” he said. “My background means I can critically analyse information that’s provided about water, infrastructure.”
And, infrastructure is one of Mr Murray’s major concerns, and was when he served on Guyra Shire Council.
“The problem for most rural people would be the roads, let’s face it – the former Armidale Dumaresq Council did a poor job fixing roads and bridges,” he said.
“Unless there’s someone from a rural area that’s pushing that it’s all going to go back the same way.”
Mr Murray is the first candidate outside Armidale to stand in the September elections.