Cr Jennings voted with his colleagues inside the council chamber to unanimously adopt the DMP but has launched a stinging attack on mayor Gary Rush’s involvement during the drafting of the document.

Cr Jennings has accused Cr Rush of attempting to influence the DMP working party to ensure calls for an independent tourism body were not properly considered, a claim Cr Rush strongly refutes.

Cr Jennings further claims the mayor rejected the “tourism community’s fundamental request for structural change”.

The DMP identifies the actions needed in order to promote Bathurst as a tourist destination but Cr Jennings says the working party did not examine all possible reforms.

“Establishing a new independent tourism body similar to that of Orange was the single biggest reform item requested by the Bathurst tourism industry throughout the DMP consultation and last year’s council budget process,” Cr Jennings said.

“Cr Rush intervened to ensure the calls of 300-plus local small businesses and tourism stakeholders were blocked, and their written and verbal submissions fell on council’s deliberately deaf ears.”

In addition, Cr Jennings said 14 letters received from local tourism bodies supporting an independent group were ignored in favour of supporting a council-run reference group.

But Cr Rush said the letters were received a year ago not as submissions to the DMP consultation, but in the lead-up to council setting down its 2014/15 budget.

Among the requests in the formatted letters was a call for $50,000 to establish an incorporated tourism body to include a board of six  to 12 members and a part-time chief executive officer. They also asked that the body be responsible for co-ordinating all local tourism.

Cr Rush said the letters were not ignored and council fulfilled every request, except one, when they created a council-run tourism reference group rather than an incorporated body.

In addition, council provided more funding than had been requested.

“There’s $200,000 in this year’s budget allocated to the Destination Management Plan,” Cr Rush said.

When asked why he voted to accept the DMP, even though he has now branded the document a dud, Cr Jennings said it would have made no difference if he had opposed it.

“It wasn’t going to make a difference, the reference group is a baby step in the right direction,” he said.

Cr Rush said 102 people attended the DMP workshops and while two people objected to the council-run reference group, there was nowhere near the 300-plus objections to the DMP that Cr Jennings claimed.

In addition, Cr Rush claims neither of these two parties said they were representing other interested parties.

“Cr Jennings is entitled to his opinion just like the rest of just and time will tell whether the adopted plan, which was unanimously supported by councillors, is a success of failure,” Cr Rush said. “The reference group will guide council to make sure this whole collaborative approach is successful.”

n Bathurst Regional Council will host two workshops today to present the findings of the Bathurst Region Destination Management Plan at the Bathurst Memorial Entertain-ment Centre at 3.30pm and 6.30pm.