We can do better | Moree Mayor vows action over Council's $50 million debt

In a notice of motion presented at the latest council meeting, Cr Pearse said, "Poor service, constant delays to projects, and the continued deterioration of assets such as roads indicate that it is time for a budgetary overhaul.

"The budget is simply not achieving what we need it to.

"This notice of motion has been tabled to ensure this year's budget and Council's long-term financial plan serve the needs of the Council and community, restores and maintains assets, and sets up our shire for long term success. It's what we promised."

Fellow councillors debated the motion for nearly an hour in front of a packed public gallery, with half a dozen ratepayers speaking to the motion and several against.

Cr Pearse said there was mounting community frustration over rafts of stalled community projects including the Moree Artesian Aquatic Centre, rural roads progressing from bad to worse and enduring poor service standards.

"Despite good intentions, Moree Plains Shire Council is not adequately delivering on our commitments to the community as set out in our annual operational plan," Cr Pearse noted in her motion.

The latest annual report showed Council only completed 54 per cent of actions for the year, down from 62 per cent in the previous year.

These included day-to-day levels of service and project delivery.

"Either productivity needs to increase or Council must make the challenging decision to reduce our levels of service," Cr Pearse said.

"We need to finish more of what we start and we cannot continue to only deliver on half of our commitments to our community."

She called for a multi-pronged approach to returning the budget to the black.

First up was "getting back to basics" by prioritising statutory services and completing grant funded projects.

Cr Pearse also called for general manager Kelvin Tytherleigh to review Council's organisational structure and recommend priorities to ensure the workplace was well resourced.

"With a full leadership team in place, now is the right time to ensure both our budget and our workforce-organisation structure puts resources and staff - in the right places to deliver the services our community needs," Cr Pearse noted in her motion.

After the meeting Mayor Mark Johnson said he had been aware of the notice and that it was "well researched, investigated and detailed".

"We can do better, no doubt, and [a completion rate of 54 per cent of actions] is not good enough, we're trying to work," Mayor Johnson said.

When the new council was elected in 2021, it "inherited a lot of legacy projects".

"We have been focusing on [revitalising] Ron Harbourne Oval, the pool and the Civic precinct, all under state's orders when we arrived," he said.

While Council's budget still projected a surplus in 2023/24, it was burdened with a $43 million debt which blew out to $50 million with latest upgrades to Moree Artesian Aquatic Centre.

"Furthermore, we look after [greatest road length of any large rural Shire], almost 3000 kilometres of roads, two thirds of which are unsealed, so that's a big priority for us."

Council aims to ensure services such as water and sewage break even in the next budget, Mayor Johnson said.

But he acknowledged Council was carrying a debt that was comparatively steep compared with neighbouring councils and hoped the notice identified a way forward to improve Council's financial position.