Duncan McNeil

Duncan McNeil sees an exciting future for the Warragul area and Baw Baw Shire.

He said a reason for standing for council was the opportunity to make positive decisions, particularly with planning, to enable retail and commercial growth and provide the infrastructure for the steadily growing population.

The growth is no reason prime agricultural land can’t be preserved, according to Mr McNeil who owns a farm and an agricultural contracting business.

But he says there’s need for change.

“There are too many short sighted and half-baked decisions and Band aid solutions rather than good, long term planning”.

He cited car parking in the Warragul central business area and the second oval to be developed in Tarwin St as examples.

“The parking issues could have been resolved but haven’t been and council failed to take an opportunity to acquire additional land in Tarwin St that would have enabled it to eventually develop a sporting complex with a full-sized oval and possibly up to three soccer grounds”.

Mr McNeil said that on many occasions council had overlooked valuable local expertise in favour of “outside” consultants to reach decisions and didn’t seem to appreciate how much “Warragul was going to explode”.

He said that while the local population was not yet large enough to encourage development of a major retail shopping complex there were things council could do to make it happen more easily.

And he added that some builders and developers that had looked for opportunities in Warragul had “given up” because dealing with the shire became too difficult.

Mr McNeil acknowledges the West Gippsland Arts Centre needs a revamp but wondered why the latest architects’ plans had “gone overboard”.

He advocates more attention to conditions of roads, more footpaths particularly to provide access for elderly people with mobility aids and greater scrutiny and public explanation of council spending.

“I think there’s been a fair bit of waste in the past,” Mr McNeil said.