The Mayor of Armidale Regional Council has been “gaslighting” the voters of his local government area for far too long, on far too many issues!!!
- Ignoring the lack of adequate potable water supply in the Guyra region for many years now.
- Publishing a water improvement plan that does not start constuction until 1928. Heavan only knows when a single litre of additional stored water will be available to the residents and businesses of Armidale LGA!.
- Meanwhile Armidale Regional Council is selling some of its precious water to residents living in Uralla Shire Council.
- The highest priority of Mayor Sam Coupland seems to be supporting and funding is the recreational cycling+walking trail proposed by New England Rail Trail (NERT).
- Clr Sam Coupland is allocating in advance, to the unnecessary, low priority cycling trail project, a vast amount of grant money that ARC expects to receive from projects in the New England Renewable Energy Zone (NEREW).
- But in 2 recent interviews on ABC Radio NENW Clr Sam Coupland is also threatening the NSW Government that he will stop the Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) in Armidale is the NSW Govt do not support and fund his too little, too late, grand water engineering plan that does not start construction till 2028, at the earliest!
- Now that is what Sir Humprey would have branded it “a very brave call” in Westminster, dont you think?
- Another recent shot in Clr Sam Coupland‘s own foot has been the brave interpretation of the results of the recent Community Feedback project to measure local support for NERT’s cycling trail.
- By his interpretation Clr Sam Coupland has 84% support from the local community, which was based on a sample size of about 1,800 replies. We still cannot tell how many of those 1,800 replies were from local residents and not the lycra clad cycling push from Sydney, Newcastle mabye even Brisbane.
- Wiser interpretation of the same data is that Clr Sam Coupland only has about 3% support from the 25,000 residents in the Armidale local govt area, as of 2025.
I think the residents of the Armidale local government area need to think real had about the priorities of Mayor Coupland and the Councillors who always support his projects, in spite of intense criticism from residents. He needs to be reminded that residents have long memories when it comes to future Federal elections.
And where does the Mayor and other ARC Councillors not declare their membership of Friends of New England Rail Trail as a potential Conflict of Interest when voting on any matters related to allocating money and staff resources toe NERT‘s cycling trail project?
John Young
New England Network
7-sep-2026