Dubbo mayor Mathew Dickerson says housing, finance among city's big challenges

They're three of the main focuses for re-elected Dubbo mayor Mathew Dickerson in the coming 12 months.

On Thursday night, Cr Dickerson was chosen to continue as mayor of Dubbo Regional Council for the coming 12 months, alongside deputy Richard Ivey.

Cr Dickerson was elected seven votes to three against councillor Josh Black, while Cr Ivey defeated councillor Pam Wells for the deputy role.

Cr Dickerson said he was looking forward to "making a difference to the lives of Dubbonians" in his coming term. However he acknowledged there were challenges ahead.

Top of the list was housing availability.

"I'd rather that problem than the opposite where no one wants to move here and you've got too much housing... That's a real challenge for us but that's great, the challenge is fantastic," he said.

"You don't want things to be simple and boring, you want things to be challenging because you can actually sink your teeth into it and make a difference."

He said the council's finances was another challenge. The council has already appointed AEC Group to conduct an in-depth financial review of the organisation.

However overall, Cr Dickerson said he was looking forward to making a difference

"I grew up in a family where volunteering and making a difference was the norm. There were eight kids in my family and we all grew up with the understanding that you helped out with things... and this is just in my mind another way I can help out the community," he said.

"If I've got the time and the capacity to do it then it's probably a waste if I don't actually try and contributed to the community."

Cr Ivey said his motivation to be deputy mayor was also around benefiting the local government area.

"The council is certainly not a not-for-profit and it's not an NGO or anything but it is there for the community," he said.

"We are there to make the community better and I just enjoy that little bit of influence you can have in trying to make the community a better place to live."

The deputy mayor said in the next 12 months he wanted to see the synergies between Dubbo and Wellington continue to develop to make the whole region a better place.

Cr Dickerson and Cr Ivey will remain as mayor and deputy respectively for the rest of this council term.

The next local government election will be held on September 14.

Reading this on mobile web? Download our news app here. It's faster, easier to read and we'll send you alerts for breaking news as it happens.