All of Ballarat’s nine current councillors will run again in the upcoming local government election.
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Earlier this year, councillors Des Hudson, Belinda Coates, Jim Rinaldi, John Philips and Amy Johnson publicly declared their intention to run in the impending local government election.
Councillors Vicki Coltman, Samantha McIntosh and Glen Crompton have also officially nominated. Cr Coltman said from a city infrastructure perspective, there are still changes she wanted to see the council deliver. Top on her priority list were improvements to roads and implementing actions from adopted master plans and strategies.
“There will always be competing demands on council funds and it is a balancing act to identify what the community needs and how we met these needs with limited resources,” she said. “The council have started to address the lack of maintenance on assets, there is still more work needed to reduce the asset gap between what council spends and what it should be spending.”
The north ward councillor vowed to push for the council to provide more fenced dog parks, increase parking and the roll-out of the city’s tree canopy initiative which aimed to double the amount of trees in urban areas.
Cr McIntosh has been a central ward councillor for eight years and said her experience was her greatest asset.
“Ballarat needs stability, first-hand experience and knowledge to guide the completion of current major projects resulting from the 2013 to 17 strategic council plan,” she said. “I want Ballarat to have a council to that will protect and build on the city’s economy, it’s internationally admired heritage and progressive events program. Experience, knowledge and vision are required to ensure Ballarat remains a leading city – not just in this state, but in this nation.”
Cr Crompton said his proudest achievements were the hundreds of conversations he had with residents behind the scenes.
“These were conversations I had which were off the radar but allowed me to help residents fix things before they became problems,” he said.
He believed his knowledge and experience were vital in the next council term which would see council’s finances put under the toughest scrutiny yet with the roll-out of rate capping.
For the full list of Ballarat City Council candidates see Thursday’s edition of The Courier.