To candidates

CANDIDATES, I have maintained a keen interest in these elections for decades, having been a candidate myself.

My observations are you will not win any accolades (votes) if you prioritise your personal feelings/beliefs (such as CBD parking improvements, saving trees, greenhouse emissions). You will not win votes by abusing past councils/councillors. The council is a team commitment and there is no “I” in team.

The council is an organisation, like it or not, that employs more than 1000 people and passes through its accounts, more than $500 million per annum. It requires strong, educated people to oversee the financial/personal and governance responsibility it has.

If you want to be considered as a candidate for this election, I suggest the following may be subjects you might want to consider:

– start resurfacing local roads. I live in a street that requires resurfacing after 25 years of use. The council needs to return to basics – roads, rates and rubbish. Roads are being severely neglected.

– surface (bitumen) all roads in the council area that have unsurfaced roads. Be it 30 metres, 300 metres or 30 kilometres, no person should, in the council area, be driving on unsealed roads. The council continues to collect rates at extreme charges from properties outside the CBD but does nothing other than grade the road at its discretions.

– rating charges are unacceptable. I pay rates on four properties. Three have bitumen frontage. The fourth does not. However the property that does not have bitumen frontage is one of the most expensive. Bitumen must be provided.

– Stop all water charges other than normal rating for two years. The charges being administered do not meet any current or forecast costs that I can observe.

– Review council planning. The legal costs of council, many of which are being lost, suggest council planning is obsolete.

– burn off to protect the city. Any person not agreeing to this should not stand as a candidate, in my view.

– mow the grass and keep vegetation under control. The council owns a lot of parkland which is overgrown with tree pear, lantana, etc.

The council cannot be considered a reliable enforcement organisation if it does not clean its own backyard. Employ people and reduce the weed, fire hazard problem. Kill the pests.

The grass after rain on council areas is dangerous and unacceptable. Employ people, including contractors, to manage the growth.

Speed limits etc are based on apart from speed, road surface (no road in Toowoomba is as it was constructed – opinion only) and surrounding conditions (grass that is unmown constitutes a danger).

– provide a pick-up service for goods once or twice a year off the kerb.

If you support all of these suggestions and are able to convince the voters in the coming weeks, you stand a chance of being elected. KAI DAHL, Toowoomba