Group seeking more young members

THE Ballarat Residents and Ratepayers Association is looking for more young people to join their group.

The association meets once a month with a focus on bringing awareness to certain municipal issues like roads, rubbish and rates.

“We’re a group that feels there is a need in Ballarat, particularly with how our money is being spent,” said president Bruce Crawford.

“We’ve got no power, but we want to draw people’s attention to it for when its election time.”

The group is volunteer run and prefers not to take community funding to stay politically neutral.

“We prefer not to be seen as beholden to groups like the council,” said Mr Crawford.

Veronica Daffey joined the association to advocate for ratepayers and said it was important she used her voice.

“I joined because of the price of my rates,” she said. “I still haven’t got a road, footpath, nothing, but my rates have skyrocketed.

“If you just sit back and do nothing, and that’s what a lot of people do, nothing is going to change.”

Association member Richard Purdy said it is a common misconception that renters, who may be more likely to be young people, don’t need to worry about rates.

“The challenge we have particularly with renters is that they don’t see that they are paying rates through their rent,” he said.

“They don’t see any direct connection when they’re paying through their landlord and still getting services like rubbish collection.”

Mr Crawford said that while he appreciates life can be busy for younger people with study, work, and family commitments, joining the Residents and Ratepayers Association is a worthy cause.

“For the future we’d like some younger participants,” he said.

“It seems to be seen as oldies, but we would really like some young people so come along, contribute and tell us what we’re doing wrong.

“It’s one hour a night, once a month to come along.”