Former Inverell Shire Mayor Paul Harmon has shocked his fellow councillors and announced he will resign from Council immediately.

Councillor Harmon’s announcement came during yesterday’s council meeting, bringing his local government career of over 20 years as a councillor and 12 years as Mayor, to a close.

Mr Harmon says the decision to retire was a hard decision but is thankful for the many memories created over that time especially with the Inverell community.

He says his reasoning for his resignation was that the current venture he is undertaking would be a conflict of interest to Council and he wanted to ensure the integrity of Council and himself was maintained.

General manager Brett McGuiness says it was resolved at the first Council meeting of this term to fill any vacancy by countback and will now notify the electoral commission of the vacancy who will then commence a process from there.