Entrepreneur stands in North Ward

FOUNDER of environmentally conscious snack business We Bar None, Ellen Burns, has put her hand up to run for North Ward in October’s City of Ballarat election.

Fuelled by her passion for climate change the first-time candidate who’s backed by the Greens developed her small business to be carbon neutral and was the first in Victoria to use 100 per cent certified home-compostable wrappers.

Ms Burns said she hopes her experience with We Bar None has equipped her with the skills to be adaptable and informed in public life.

“Being a small business owner, especially a sole trader, you really become a jack of all trades,” she said.

“Councillors need a broad range of skills to deal with financial matters, community issues and how to solve them.

“Being a small business owner teaches you how to address these issues and think outside the box.”

Growing up and living in Warrenheip and Brown Hill, Ms Burns has always harboured an awareness and appreciation for the issues faced by people of the area.

Standing as a Greens endorsed candidate, she said her key focuses are climate action, local economy, community groups, food security and developing suburbs.

“I understand the issues of a lot of sections of our community and I am already working to address them,” she said.

“In North Ward, one of the biggest issues is managing the urban sprawl in a community focused way.

“Running for council is the next step of what I am already doing so hopefully I can get elected and get a lot more done.”

Alongside her business pursuit, Ms Burns also co-founded The Hidden Orchard which is a community group that harvests unwanted fruit and redistributes it to where it’s needed.

That endeavour illuminated for her the issue of food security and she said the organisation was still a long way away from solving it.

“In 2015, a study by Monash University showed that 12 per cent of Ballarat residents had accessed food relief that year, and that figure is estimated to have doubled as a result of COVID-19,” she said.

“That could be a quarter of our community struggling to feed themselves.

“My position as a business owner but also as the founder of a volunteer group, gives me a pretty unique position to find solutions to the communities’ problems.”

Throughout her social and entrepreneurial work, Ms Burns helped draft a few of the city’s action plans including the food strategy and the Brown Hill local area plan.

After that involvement with the operations and projects of the City of Ballarat, she said she decided the next natural step to run for a council seat.

“I dipped my toe in getting involved with council from the other side of things,” she said. “It gave me the inspiration to see if I could get involved from within to make some changes.”

In the wake of this year’s bushfires, COVID-19, and the recent reshuffle of the municipality’s CEO and executive leadership team, the future of the municipality remains unclear.

Although, Ms Burns said she hopes she can be a part of supporting both the city, its residents and its governing body to rebuild.

“The most important thing for me is really strengthening the Ballarat community and helping it realise its potential to be the regional hub of Victoria,” she said.

“We can do a lot to connect and strengthen the community and bring it together.

“People have been through a lot this year, that should be the focus of the next council to really focus on unity and strength.”