He said he found council's explanation of its decision to take no action at this stage "unreasonable and bordering on irresponsible".

Alliance members were astonished that council would be "placing all its eggs into an unknown and unqualified basket which might potentially deliver nothing significantly new to the debate", he said. He condemned council's decision to take no action until after a proposed community forum in the Manning ? to outline landholders' rights ? saying there is clear, significant and sufficient information currently available to council to formalise its position on CSG and to act now.

Mr Epov said the CSG issue is very complex, rapidly evolving, and financially and economically significant. "As such it has left civic and political leaders well behind in its present-day evolution."

Therefore, "we need to be pro-active rather than reactive.

"We shouldn't waste time and do nothing, waiting for the drillers to arrive or for the State government to announce its position at the end of the moratorium in December - it will be too late!"

Mr Epov said the Alliance believes the Manning Valley needs to make a stand, to promote itself as anti-CSG drilling and to be recognised as a region of State significance.

Members feel it's time for the city council to test a claim by newly elected NSW premier Barry O'Farrell, who placed great emphasis on the fact that he was in touch with the opinions and concerns of people in regional NSW, "and justified this claim by asserting that his wife was from Taree".

"We need to mount an effective case based on a number of core elements including environmental threats, water, food production, eco-tourism and tourism, economic impact, agriculture, land owners' rights, horticulture and the potential disintegration of the community, potentially leading to loss of jobs when the agrarian sector collapses, and all those industries and businesses which currently support food production in the Manning Valley disappear," Mr Epov said.

"CSG may create a few new jobs, but it will destroy the region's economy."

The Alliance, in a three page letter to Cr Hogan this week, asked the mayor and his council to immediately establish a CSG community consultative committee which would develop and implement "a range of measures to support and argue a strong case against CSG".

Such a committee could draw on a talent bank of local expertise to mount a campaign, Mr Epov said.

"Coal seam gas is not like any 'normal' issue or challenge that council faces on a day-to-day basis," he said in his letter.

"As we have seen from Queensland, and obviously the United States and Canada experiences, the ramifications of coal seam gas imposed upon a community can be, and are, devastating.

"If imposed on Manning Valley residents, it would be remembered for a very long time!"

"This situation is now evolving on your council's watch," he warned the mayor. "Please do not simply sit and wait for someone else to do something."

He said the council was elected to provide leadership.

" Now is when the community expects leadership."

Mr Epov said this is an opportunity for council to "step up and unequivocally represent the concern of the community and its unqualified opposition to the clear and present danger of coal seam gas drilling in the Manning Valley."

But in the event council fails to act in time, the Alliance stresses that Manning residents - individually or as groups - must lodge submissions in the next few days to the recently announced State government inquiry which has a deadline of next Wednesday.

"If a significant number of submissions are lodged from our region this will make an impact and there could be the possibility that the standing committee will come to Taree to hear evidence and submissions.

"The standing committee would be followed by the mainstream national media, which is now waking up to CSG.

"This is a very important inquiry, which was very hard to get up, and which should not be ignored."