Important Rail Trail Update – Council Meeting Wednesday 26 August
Dear supporters,
Armidale Regional Council will consider an important New England Rail Trail Project Status Report – Item 10.3 at its Ordinary Council Meeting on Wednesday, 26 August 2026.
I have now completed a Short Interim Independent Review of Council's community consultation results and provided it to the General Manager, Mayor and Councillors for consideration.
Council has reported 1,848 responses, with 1,563 classified Supportive and 285 Against, producing a headline result of about 84.5% support.
My review does not claim that the arithmetic is wrong or that the consultation found little support. It raises important questions about what the headline percentage actually demonstrates.
Some key findings and questions are:
Council classified 396 Within-LGA responses as Supportive and 98 Against. This shows substantial support among the local people who participated, but a voluntary consultation cannot automatically be treated as representative of the wider LGA population.
549 Supportive responses came from outside the LGA, more than the 396 identified Supportive responses from within the LGA.
An extraordinary 794 of the 1,848 responses—about 43%—were classified “Address Unknown.”
Of these, 618 were classified Supportive. These 618 responses alone represent about 39.5% of Council's entire Supportive total.
The information released so far does not enable councillors or the community to determine how many of these Address Unknown responses actually came from within the LGA and how many came from outside. This distinction could materially affect how the consultation result is interpreted.
Council should clarify whether 1,848 represents 1,848 unique respondents, or whether it includes multiple responses or interactions by the same people or organisations through one or more of the consultation methods.
Council should also explain what procedures were used to identify duplicates, what criteria determined whether a response was accepted as legitimate, and whether any submissions or interactions were rejected or excluded.
The broad Supportive category also appears to include different positions, such as conditional support, support with reservations, and support for a Rail + Trail/off-formation alternative that retains the railway.
The central issue is therefore not simply whether 84.5% was calculated correctly. It is whether that aggregate percentage provides sufficient evidence of broad community support within the core Armidale Regional Council community for the particular rail-trail proposal that may ultimately proceed.
Please attend the Council meeting
I strongly encourage petition supporters who live in the Armidale Regional Council area and nearby communities to attend the Council meeting:
Wednesday, 26 August 2026. 4.00pm
Armidale Regional Council Chambers
135 Rusden Street, Armidale
If community members are permitted to address Council before the meeting, that session is expected to commence at approximately 3.30 pm.
Please arrive well before 3.30 pm if possible so that you have a better chance of obtaining a seat in the Council Chamber.
Item 10.3 – New England Rail Trail Project Status Report is particularly important. Council's report records the consultation results and indicates that the project is moving through further approvals and design work, with a NSW Rail Trails Framework submission scheduled for November 2026.
This is therefore an important opportunity for residents, ratepayers and people from affected neighbouring communities to attend, listen to the debate and demonstrate their continuing interest in the future of this important public rail corridor.
Thank you again for your continuing support.
Siri Gamage
Concerned ratepayer, Armidale