His comments followed the Goulburn AP&H Society’s call to cancel the Goulburn Show due to a booking clash, and the council’s announcement it would run the event next year.

“I am not sure if Mr Bennett thinks he is an elected member?” Cr Saville said. “He came up with this idea independently; council seems to be an afterthought to him.”

Cr Saville said a “thought bubble” was floated past councillors in an email about the possibility of council running the show.

“Then a media release was issued without my knowledge. My immediate reaction about this was concern, and that has just grown,” he said. “This was a thought-bubble and council is not a part of this decision at all, but he went ahead anyway.

“I have a few concerns about it and I have voiced these to the general manager, Warwick Bennett. My concerns are (1) How much will it cost? (2) How many staff will be needed to run it? and (3) What is not going to be done while these staff are running the show?

“Mr Bennett advised me it would be cost-neutral to run the show. Let me be clear on this: council has not decided to do this, it is a unilateral action by the general manager. Does he think he actually has the authority to run a show?”

Cr Saville said a council-run event begged many other questions. 

“Is council part of the AP&H Society? Do we need to be to run these events? Mr Bennett has said council will run it with part-time staff: really?

“A few councillors are in favour because they had concerns about the loss of the show, but I keep wondering whether this is part of council’s core business. The general manager keeps telling us that council should not be involved in things that are not our core business. This is why we don’t run airports and so forth, but I ask: is running a show part of our core business?”

Meantime, Mayor Geoff Kettle labelled the AP&H Show Society “bloody minded” for cancelling next year’s event. He told the Post it was not the council’s role to run the Show.

“The Show Society should run it and it’s totally irresponsible of them to cancel it,” he said. 

“Yes, we stuffed up with the bookings, but we’ve tried to resolve it. Harness Racing was prepared to compromise by moving their meeting back two hours, but the Show Society has not budged one iota. It’s not our role, but it’s disappointing that organisers have been so bloody minded.”

The Mayor said the council appreciated the logistics involved, but if it didn’t take the initiative, the community suffered. It plans to also hold the event at the Recreation Area on the same weekend, March 5 and 6. Cr Kettle could not say what space this would utilise.

The Society told the Post that holding the harness racing meeting and the Show on the same day posed too much of an insurance risk; but Cr Kettle said the same insurer advised the council verbally that it was possible to hold the two events on the same day, provided a satisfactory management plan was furnished.

If the council decided to press ahead, he expected a report on costings and a budget would go to a future meeting. Meantime, the Mayor said people had contacted him to help out with the event.

Cr Kettle also hit out at organisers for moving the event without consulting other district show organisers. “I’ve fielded several calls from angry people about the lack of consultation,” he said.

But Show president Jacki Waugh rejected the claim. She told the Post the committee advised of the shift at a Group 7 meeting at Yass last May, attended by all district show organisers, including Braidwood and Tarago representatives.

Tarago Show Society president Keith Hunter rejected Mrs Waugh’s account, saying the Goulburn AP&H Society had used “bullying tactics and spin doctoring” without compromise. 

Cr Bob Kirk said he was happy to see the Show progress. 

“All I have said is that if we do it, we have to ensure we have the wherewithal to do it well or we will be blamed for not running it properly,” he said. 

“To engage the suitable and competent people to run a show is up to Mr Bennett.

With that view, I am happy to see it progress, otherwise the outcome would be no Show.

Cr Margaret O’Neill said she was not part of those discussions.

“The people of Goulburn expect a Show to happen and there are some Show people on board to help run it, but we will have to investigate it more,” she said. 

Cr Sam Rowland was supportive of the council move. 

“I think the Show is a brilliant community event, and there’s an expectation out there that it will run, whether that’s by council or the Show Society,” he said. 

While he had no information about potential costs, he was confident that council staff would be able to organise a show.

“We have some brilliant staff at the Visitor Information Centre. We have the resources to do it. Time isn’t on our side, but we do have the capacity.”

Cr Andrew Banfield did not believe the council should run the Show, just loan support. “In saying that, we should have a Show no matter what. It must go on,” he said. 

He maintained that with committees such as SpyFest and Spring Festival organisers in its midst, Goulburn had the expertise to stage a successful event.

Cr Banfield wasn’t perturbed that costings hadn’t been presented to councillors before general manager Warwick Bennett committed to organising the event. 

“I don’t think as a council we can just not have a Show. There is too much community expectation,” he said.

 “A lot of people live for the Show circuit and I’d imagine we’d have money in our recreation budget.”

Cr Carol James said she was “disappointed” with the Goulburn Show Society and said she thought they should be running the show, not the council. 

“I think the Show must go on: they just can’t cancel it,” she said.

Cr Denzil Sturgiss also felt the council had no option. 

“The way it’s turned out and the lack of cooperation from the Show Society, the only thing we can do is run it. The Show must go ahead and there are enough people out there to help,” he said. He was not concerned at the lack of costings, saying the council had to take the initiative.

Cr Alfie Walker said he was “opposed to council running the Show”.