Outgoing central ward councillor David Atkinson is hoping to give Mitchell Shire’s new council and chief executive a head start on the community’s priorities with reports into issues frequently raised by councillors and residents over the past four years.
Then Cr Atkinson raised a notice of motion at the September 21 council meeting, the last of the current council before the October 24 local government elections.
The motion recommended council officers prepare a pair of summary reports on the groupings of councillor requests since 2017, one for those submitted by councillors themselves and one for those raised by residents via a councillor, and present those to council at a later date.
Groupings of issues could include drainage, roads, and footpaths.
Then Cr Atkinson, who chose not to contest the election, said a snapshot of ongoing issues could assist in directing the new council and chief executive to some common issues to possibly focus on.
“We’ve been in council for nearly four years now and we receive a lot of councillor requests,” he said.
“Some we do ourselves in terms of we go around our community and find things that need attention and put them in, but we also receive a lot of requests from residents.
“In the back of my mind, I find there are a few items that are consistent such as drains, roads and footpaths.”
Then Cr Atkinson said knowing these ongoing issues could help in allocating funding through council budgets.
“If we’re failing in one area, we can concentrate on that and maybe put some more resources into it or we can understand what the issues are,” he said.
“It’s basically a snapshot of the issues we’ve been getting over the last three or four years.”
The motion was passed unanimously.