Mayor Bob Manning says he is disappointed the amalgamation of Cairns Regional Council and Douglas Shire Council has not worked and has warned the current economic environment will provide challenges for a new Douglas Shire.

Speaking on the results of Saturday’s historical de-amalgamation poll, Cr Manning said he hoped that the wishes of 'yes' voters could be met financially.

“I feel a little disappointed that we won’t have the opportunity to make it work,” Cr Manning said following the split of Douglas Shire from Cairns Regional Council (CRC).

“I think amalgamation was done badly by the (state) government at the time and I don’t think the previous Cairns Regional Council and Douglas Shire Council worked together as well as it should.

“But I think we are on the cusp of a new confluence in Tropical North Queensland and the CRC area.

“We have a lot of things lined up at the moment that are either happening or about to happen and we are acutely conscious of the need to create a feeling of confidence for investors to come into the region and be prepared to try and get the economy moving again. I just hope that isn’t impacted by any way by this.”

In his campaigning for mayor in last year’s local government elections, Cr Manning stated he was a clear advocate of making amalgamation work – a notion he re-iterates.

“I’ve never been an amalgamationist despite coming from a local government background early on in my career… I could now argue against amalgamation and for councils just to work co-operatively together,” he said.

“Having said that, there are examples of amalgamations in Queensland that have worked well – Cairns and Mulgrave, and Townsville and Thuringowa are good examples of that.

“I understand perfectly that people want to go back to what they had before, but I’ve also found that things are never the same when you go back. You have to move forward - circumstances and the environment change and you have to adapt with that.

“And the world in which we live at the moment is changing at an ever-increasing rate. The danger here is that times have moved on, we’re coming off the GFC and that still has impacts.

“We’ve got federal and state governments that are strained, debt-ridden. Their grants and subsidies that flow to local government are being restricted and we’re looking at another 20% increase in electricity charges.

“It’s a vastly different operating environment to what it used to be and the people who advocated for de-amalgamation now have to make this work.

“Whether the poll verdict was right or wrong, history will be the judge of that.”