Great divide to stay

A PROPOSED boundary change to move the entire Point Lonsdale postcode 3225 into the Borough of Queenscliffe has hit a roadblock.

The borough has been working on the idea to unite the Point Lonsdale community into one local government area for more than five years.

The recent Greater Geelong COVID-19 lockdown highlighted the issue of Point Lonsdale’s division, with part of the town in lockdown and part excluded, until a state government exemption let the Greater Geelong ratepayers in the 3225 postcode go “free”.

The state government lockdown exemption was supported by the City council.

However, the City has decided that it “is not in a position to support a review of local government boundaries” and without its support, the boundary realignment proposal will not progress.

In a report to Queenscliffe’s council, borough chief executive officer Martin Gill said in early 2020, the mayor and CEO approached the City of Greater Geelong to discuss the borough’s decision from February 2016 to realign the local government boundary between Greater Geelong and Queenscliffe “to facilitate the inclusion of the entire 3225 postcode area in the Borough of Queenscliffe”.

“During the discussion Council indicated that it would like to recommence the process to review and investigate the viability of the boundary realignment,” Mr Gill said.

He said the City of Greater Geelong requested that the borough council prepare and provide an issues and benefits paper for consideration.

During 2020, the borough council worked with the state government to determine the best process to prepare the paper and Local Government Minister Shaun Leanne advised that he would consider establishing a restructuring advisory panel to conduct a review the borough showed “sufficient support for this proposal from those who would be directly impacted”.

The borough will now inform the Minister that there is not sufficient support, and a review of the 2016 council resolution will be prepared.