Gunnedah crime prevention conference stirs debate

At its last meeting, the council voted on a potential $10,000 spend to organise a two-day conference at the suggestion of the council's crime prevention group.

But Murray O'Keefe and Gae Swain said it was risky to host a big event without sponsorship, and staff could not handle the work load.

"My concerns relate to the fact that council ... is sponsoring and bearing all the risk for the event," Cr O'Keefe said.

"It's important to point out that this hasn't been done previously in the realms of local government in NSW.

"I think there's some more legwork to do before we as a shire commit to underwrite this."

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Cr Swain didn't think the council could add anything else to its plate now.

"We have a huge amount going on in our shire at the moment," she said.

"It's a big job ... [and] I don't think our staff can handle any more at the moment."

Owen Hasler was surprised that the working group's motion was "being dismissed so easily".

"Our staff are quite experienced people. They do have a high work load but that is expected of them, and they have delivered," he said.

"I think at this stage we might be a bit more optimistic in believing we can attract 80-100 people to our community."

Planning director Andrew Johns predicting attendance for events was "a bit of a dark art".

"The risk is that we don't get the number of delegates to make it a success so the proposal at this stage is to report back to council at such time as we could then cancel the conference down the track if we weren't getting the delegates we needed," he said.

Mr Johns said there was a chance the event could break-even and highlighted the wider economic benefit for the town.

"There is a significant flow-on benefit to the businesses of the town and the shire in terms of accommodation, fuel and that type of thing," he said.

Mayor Jamie Chaffey called for a show of hands and the motion was carried six votes to three.