Association lead advocating for Batesford

BATESFORD Golden Plains Residents and Ratepayers Association has elected Stephen Condon as its new president.

Mr Condon has a background in investment banking and has moved back to Victoria with his family after decades in the UK.

After buying a property in Batesford and becoming aware of the municipal rates imbalance between postcodes, he’s decided to stand up and lead a “sensible, coordinated, tactful effort” to lobby the Golden Plains Shire for the charges to be “more measured.”

“We’ve relocated to this amazing, beautiful little town and I want my daughter to grow up here,” he said.

“We’ve all got to stand together. The Association’s intention is to be a united and social community group all about the 350 households in Batesford, not just about the rates.”

Mr Condon said the group is working to build a database of residents’ contact details, and create a “structured and robust” channel for them to log in and communicate on all manner of issues, from rates and roads, to community initiatives.

“We’d like to see the Association grow into a broader community forum. Once we have this database, we can identify more topics of concern together, and how we would like to drive the Association going forward,” he said.

As the town is split between the Shire and City of greater Geelong, Mr Condon said the Association also has a goal to work with both municipalities into the future.

“The most pressing issue on the Golden Plains side is to seek a resolution to the big rates number, and make it, and the delivery of services, a little bit more proportionate across the whole area,” he said.

Councillors passed new differential rating categories for the next four years at the February regular meeting, adopting an option which some residents said they were not consulted on.

The move included a 10 per cent increase for Bannockburn businesses, a five per cent rise for intensive farming and 2.5 per cent more on the broadacre farming rate, as well as $60.60 drop in the municipal charge, which is the base payment all ratepayers make each year regardless of property value.

In response, Batesford resident Alex Peters launched a Change.org petition in March calling for “transparency” from the Shire, which received 186 signatures.

“Ratepayers have been overlooked, ignored, and not given the opportunity to give community feedback on the outcome that they decided on,” he said.