Cr Jennings, no stranger to controversy, has fired a new broadside at his colleagues, this time targeting Cr Michael Coote in particular.

It comes after Cr Coote last week accused Cr Jennings of pushing his own political agenda by bringing state and national issues such as coal seam gas mining and the Racial Discrimination Act into the local chamber.

Cr Coote told last week's council meeting that councillors had been elected to represent the needs of local constituents, not to "grandstand or try to get political traction".

Cr Jennings was the failed Labor candidate at last year's federal election and has regularly found himself on the outer on a council dominated by a conservative bloc led by mayor Gary Rush, Cr Coote, Cr Warren Aubin and Cr Greg Westman. But he remains unrepentant about raising items he sees of local importance.

“If I hadn’t personally discovered the local story on CSG two years ago and didn’t bring issues like CSG threats to our council’s attention, then who would?” he said.

“The answer is ‘absolutely nobody’ because federal and state members Mr [John] Cobb and Mr [Paul] Toole both actively support CSG as their National Party platform dictates, and this of course includes Mayor Rush.”

Cr Jennings accused his colleagues of not wanting to do any policy work on council “unless it’s served up to them on a platter or dictated to them by council staff”.

“I personally ran for council to make a difference by actually earning my councillor allowance, and not just sitting back doing the bare minimum and feeding off a few perks like free tickets to the V8s and 12 Hour races,” he said.

Cr Coote was happy to return fire yesterday, again questioning Cr Jennings’ motives.

“All he is doing is trying to get his personal profile out there,” Cr Coote said.

“He seems to be pushing his own agenda not for the local region but because he wants to be the member for Calare.

“I’ve sat back for so long not saying anything and letting him go but when he brings up that other councillors don’t have an economics degree I just think, well, come on.”

Cr Coote said there was nothing to be gained from a councillor picking a fight with the state or federal member.

“[Cr Jennings] does what a lot of Labor candidates do and just bag their opposition, but when you’re in a position of responsibility on council you just can’t do that,” he said.

“The problem is, if he starts getting into the two politicians we, as a council, rely on for a lot of our funding then you know what they will do, they’ll say ‘bugger them’ and look at giving money to Lithgow, or Orange, or whatever.”

He also questioned Cr Jennings’ assertion that his colleagues were happy to do the bare minimum to collect their allowance.

“Cr Jennings and I both sit on the AH&P committee and I can tell you he has been to one meeting in two years,” Cr Coote said.

Cr Rush did not want to buy into the grandstanding debate but said he did not refer to National Party policy before taking a position on issues.

“As mayor you are the spokesperson for council and when your fellow councillors resolve, as they have done, to make Bathurst Regional Council a CSG-free zone, my position is to fully support that resolution of council,” Cr Rush said.

“But, personally, I’m also supportive of that position and where there are risks of CSG doing permanent damage to our waterways or agricultural land, I’m opposed to it.”

Mr Toole also rejected Cr Jennings’ claim, saying the Coalition’s record on CSG stacked up well against the former Labor government.

“The former Labor government issued 39 Petroleum Exploration Licences across the state. Labor issued these titles with no consideration of protecting neither the states’ precious water resources nor agricultural land,” Mr Toole said.

“In contrast, the Liberal/National Government has not issued a single new petroleum title.”

Mr Toole said the government would “continue to hold this industry to the highest standards”.