Tamworth Regional Council joins Coalition of Regional Energy Mayors

"The REZ was probably designed with a bit of crayon on a map. It wasn't really thought through all that well, I don't believe anyway," Cr Webb said.

"I think it's a bit of a dog's breakfast at the moment."

The mayor says his major bone of contention is a lack of consultation between the NSW government and regional local government areas (LGA) like Tamworth.

In a bid to strengthen its bargaining power with the state government and renewable energy companies, council voted to join the Coalition of Regional Energy Mayors (CoREM) at its latest meeting.

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At the meeting, councillors Bede Burke and Phil Betts raised concerns about the New England REZ, saying it was "rushed" and "imposed" on regional LGAs without their consent.

The mayor echoed those concerns while fronting the media on Wednesday.

"With the Renewable Energy Zones, it's all been put together too quickly and there hasn't been enough thought going into it. That's one of the reasons we're forming this CoREM. There hasn't been any joint consultation with local government from state government on either side of parliament," Cr Webb said.

But he said he wasn't blaming the previous Coalition government, who announced the REZ in 2020, for the poor planning and lack of consultation.

"I don't think it matters who's in power, it might've been the Nats when all that was done. Was there any thought put into it? There probably was ... but it means nothing when you look at it because there's so many renewable energy projects going outside the REZ that I just don't know what it means," Cr Webb said.

Council spent $5000 joining CoREM, which Cr Webb says will be worth the cost as the lobbying group presents a united front for regional governments facing issues from the renewable energy transition.

"We'll be advocating for some good, consistent outcomes in the way these projects are managed not just across our own Local Government Area but across the regions in NSW," he said.

Cr Webb said this will mean negotiating with companies and the state government to build upgrades for regional roads used to carry energy infrastructure, and forcing renewable energy companies to put money back into local communities.

"With the coal mines they've developed the program Royalties for Regions, so the mines have to contribute to a fund and those funds are distributed to the Local Government Areas impacted by those coal mines. The same is going to have to apply in some sort of way to renewable energy zones," he said.

The New England REZ has been described as "one of the hardest to establish" due to a 'vocal minority's' opposition to renewable energy.

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