Familiar faces take lead

Several familiar faces will lead Wimmera, southern Mallee and Grampians municipalities for the final year before local government elections.

Horsham Rural City, Hindmarsh Shire, West Wimmera Shire and Northern Grampians Shire councils hosted elections in the past week to determine which councillors would serve as mayors for the next 12 months.

Incumbent Horsham mayor Mark Radford was re-elected unopposed at a meeting on Thursday night.

Cr Radford has been a councillor since 2008 and has served terms as mayor in 2014-15 and 2018-19.

He said planning work undertaken by the council during the past year – including the introduction of a City to River Masterplan to transform the city over the next two decades – had paved the way for progress.

“We completed an Open Space Strategy, we’ve been talking about urban transport and we’re just about to commence the Horsham South Structure Plan as well as the City to River,” he said.

“That planning work will really lead this community into the future and put us in a good place.

“The government has told us all the way along that if we do this sort of planning, what we have is strategic justification.

“If a grant opportunity comes along, we can bring out the paperwork and say, ‘here is the strategic justification in our long-term planning for why you should consider funding this’.

“It will lead us into the future, not just next year, but into the next five, 10 and even 20 years.”

Cr Radford said councillors and council officers were working through extensive community feedback on the City to River plan and hoped to announce updates to the plan before the end of the year.

He said he believed it was likely the plan would be split into ‘bitesized’ segments, each with its own set of guidelines.

At a Northern Grampians Shire Council meeting on Monday night Murray Emerson replaced Kevin

Erwin as mayor. Cr Emerson was previously mayor of the shire for one term in 2015-16, while Cr Erwin has served five terms as mayor.

Cr Emerson acknowledged Cr Erwin’s work as mayor and said he looked forward to working with new chief executive Liana Thompson during the next year.

“A major focus for us is to work with the new chief executive to make the Northern Grampians Shire an even better place to live and work, with sustainability a key factor,” he said.

“Together we can remain one of the leading creative shires in local government. Rates, roads and rubbish are three of the main services that need our immediate attention.”

At a Hindmarsh Shire Council statutory meeting on Wednesday, Rob Gersch edged out incumbent mayor Ron Ismay and Debra Nelson in a three-way contest.

Cr Gersch has been a councillor in the region for 35 years, serving on both the Hindmarsh Shire and previous Lowan Shire councils. He has previously served as Hindmarsh mayor.

He said he looked forward to working with the council to complete its four-year term. Cr Gersch also congratulated 12 young people announced as the Hindmarsh Shire Youth Council for 2020.

West Wimmera Shire Council also welcome a former mayor back to the top job with the election of Bruce Meyer, who replaces Jodie Pretlove.

Cr Meyer has been a councillor for 24 years and has served six previous terms as mayor.

“My councillor colleagues and I look forward to working hard for the long-term benefit of all shire residents in the lead-up to the elections in October 2020,” he said.

The four mayors join Ararat Rural City Council’s Jo Armstrong – who was elected mayor of the municipality earlier this month – leading the region.

Yarriambiack Shire Council will elect its mayor for the next 12 months at a meeting on November 27.

Not taken seriously

Sir, – I read your editorial ‘Decentralisation insight’, October 23, with interest.

I was a Democratic Labor Party candidate in the 1960s and decentralisation was always one of our major policies back then.

It is a pity that no government party of the day ever took such a concept seriously.

In 1963 the DLP proposed the development of “...a new town in the Portland area in line with the harbour and industrial development of the area.”

It was envisaged that such development would efficiently serve the development of the Western District, Wimmera and Mallee as well as parts of South Australia.

It also called for plans to develop Portland as a city of 100,000 by the late ’70s and anticipated a population of about 300,000 by the mid-90s, extrapolating those figures one could have envisaged a city of around 500,000 at this time.

A similar proposal – 1958, 1961 and 1964 – was for the development of a deep water port at Port Albert in South Gippsland that would have served the Gippsland regions of the state.

Imagine that if such ideas had been thoroughly developed we could have two thriving metropolis’ that would have considerably reduced the population congestion of Melbourne with all its subsequent development problems that currently plaque it and cost the state dearly.

There is no doubt in my mind that regional areas would have shown far better development and stability. Both Port cities would also have made it far more economically feasible for a modern fast rail connection such as Adelaide – Mount Gambier – Portland – Warnambool – Geelong – Melbourne – Warragul – Traralgon – Port Albert.

But successive State Governments, both Liberals and Labor, have been so Melbourne centric to the state’s detriment. John Launder Stawell

“If a grant opportunity comes along, we can bring out the paperwork and say, ‘here is the strategic justification in our long-term planning for why you should consider funding this’. It will lead us into the future, not just next year, but into the next five, 10 and even 20 years” – Cr Mark Radford

Top priority

Sir, – The Australian Prime Minister says that mental health is the government’s top priority.

The Australian Prime Minister says that the drought is the government’s top priority.

Every Australian know that holding onto power is the Australian Government’s top priority. J. Mcinerney Horsham