WAR comes to the Rural City of Wangaratta

With a new council to be elected in November, it is time to establish the long awaited
Wangaratta Association of Ratepayers.

Without wards or portfolios, councillors have no specific responsibilities to the ratepayers. In fact, a recent VCAT decision supported Indigo councillors acting on their personal agenda rather than that of the people they represented.

Individually, ratepayers can be easily ignored by the beauracracy. Organised, as an incorporated association, they can use 'people power' to maintain some grass roots democracy. It is important that ratepayers support this new organisation to ensure they are not ignored by the system.

The mission is to recruit a "Shadow Council" of ratepayers to keep in regular contact with our newly elected representatives and to monitor the quality of governance in the Rural City of Wangaratta.

Both the federal and state governments depend upon strong opposition to be able to deliver good governance. The very existence of a ratepayers association does the same for local government.

It is also planned to provide our "Shadow Councillors" with portfolios according to their interests. Typical portfolios might be finance, the ageing population and population growth, rural issues, infrastructure or health.

The peak body of ratepayer associations, Ratepayers Victoria Inc., lists the current concerns of member associations as:

• Secrecy in Council deliberations
  
• “Community Consultation” that is expensive and often ignored
  
• Increasing powers of Council CEOs
  
• Cost shifting to local government
  
• Lack of equity between rates and services provided in large rural shires
  
• Rapidly increasing rate burden
  
• Short term grants with long-term staffing and financing implications
  
• Too many Council activities

Whilst we can relate to these concerns, the Rural City of Wangaratta has its unique set of difficulties such as the most unmade roads in Victoria and the lack of public transport beyond the urban area.

A series of public meetings will be held to seek membership and direction from the ratepayers regarding the issues that matter most to them.

With the acronym of 'WAR' and regular meetings to be known as 'War Councils', the organisation should be able to keep our elected representatives, the community and the media interested in ratepayers concerns.

Interested ratepayers should contact Greg Naylor by phone on 57-298-081 or by email at gnaylor@bordernet.com.au