Port supports Bellarine council plan

AN IDEA to form a separate Bellarine council has support from at least one community group, with the Portarlington Community Association voting in favour of the plan.

PCA members formally supported the proposal to explore a deamalgamation from the City of Greater Geelong (COGG) at an association meeting this month after considering a discussion paper on the idea in recent weeks.

The discussion paper was first circulated among Combined Bellarine Community Association (CBCA) earlier this year, with the Portarlington group among its strongest early supporters.

PCA president Geoff Fary said Portarlington residents gave a near-unanimous vote to progress the plan.

“The overwhelming majority of the people there said it’s time to look further into the feasibility into a separate Bellarine municipality for the reasons outlined in the paper,” Mr Fary said.

“It has to do with, more than anything else, with the sheer size of the City of Greater Geelong, both in area and population.

“The Bellarine is different and it’s not possible for the people in a town hall to understand the different needs, culture and values of the people on the Bellarine.”

The proposal is yet to gain widespread momentum among CBCA member groups, which has not yet formally discussed it or decided on its merits.

The paper proposes a range of options to form new local governance structures on the peninsula; including splitting an area currently recognised as COGG’s Bellarine ward and potential mergers with Surf Coast Shire or the Borough of Queenscliffe.

It cites perceptions about service level decline, consultation management for key priority projects and inequitable funding distributions as reasons for the break-up plan.

COGG distanced itself from the idea in February, indicating that local government boundaries are a state government decision.

The Borough of Queenscliffe has opposed the idea and reinforced its preference for independence.