Dubbo Regional Council has reduced its number of divisions by one as it moves towards a structure for the future. Under the change the Wellington branch division that came into being at the forced merger of the Dubbo City and Wellington councils in May has been broken up. Instead all staff will belong to one of six divisions and report to the relevant director in charge. The state government has required amalgamated councils to adopt an integrated organisational structure. The structure adopted in May - which included seven divisions - was not integrated, council acting interim general manager David Dwyer said in a report to an extraordinary council meeting on Wednesday. The interim integrated organisational structure adopted at the extraordinary meeting closely resembles the make-up of the former Dubbo City Council with its six divisions. Under the structure, in place since 1994, the former Dubbo council “operated professionally, effectively and efficiently culminating in the council winning the AR Bluett Award in 2004-2005”, Mr Dwyer said in the report. Council administrator Michael Kneipp said the new model, developed in consultation with staff, offered a number of benefits. “Everybody within Dubbo Regional Council will be reporting to a director who has expertise in the area they’re working in,” he said. “That’s very good for the corporate governance of the organisation and it’s good for the development of staff in those areas as well because they have managers who have that specific expertise.” But he noted it remained an interim structure, with the council to finish a review of its operations in the next six months. The council has set up a project management office to lead the process, with senior staff member Murray Wood at the helm. Karen Roberts, who was praised by Mr Kneipp for her work leading the Wellington branch division, will also be part of the team. “We’ve taken Murray offline from parks and landcare in Dubbo and Karen will join Murray in the project management office and over the next 12 months they’ll be working intensively on all those integration matters,” Mr Kneipp said. Mr Kneipp said it was a big job but progress had already been made. “For example, we now have common insurance policies and there have been savings there,” he said.