Committee shows council their town in a bid to attract improvements

MEMBERS of the St Leonards Beautification Committee have led a group of council representatives around their town in a bid to “make it look cared for”.

Last week, convenor Denis O’Bryan, along with three other members, took Bellarine councillors Stephanie Asher, Jim Mason and Trent Sullivan on a tour of 12 stops that were of concern to community members.

“Our group inspected the town area and documented infrastructure and appearance, and then put our findings in a questionnaire to test community feeling,” Mr O’Bryan said.

“We were blown away by the support – 86 returns over two weeks – there was no publicity, just word of mouth via the traders, and half had extra comments.”

Some of the issues highlighted during the walk around included potholes and dirt outside the local hardware store, which needs kerb and channelling, the need for a bus shelter at the bus stop and for it to be relocated to a more central location away from the hotel, and the town’s public toilets, which residents say are a disgrace and have no signage.

Mr O’Bryan said he wanted to leave the council representatives with three strong recommendations.

“To make the town look cared for, we need to restore the care factor. We request a dedicated works crew for streets and parks – a leader and two or three helpers and a base budget of $500,000 to $1 million that expands with other projects.

“We need a process for orderly big picture planning the current and future of the town. For example, council has approved a 50 per cent in house numbers but no budgeted increase in infrastructure in a town that does not cope with holiday populations. We request a dedicated officer or team.”

He said St Leonards’ rates totalled approximately $6 million and was rising, and “we want to see $6 million in value returned”.