New leaders for last leg of council term

BALLARAT will experience different leadership in the last part of this council term, after Cr Ben Taylor was elected Mayor on Monday night, with Cr Belinda Coates as Deputy.

Looking ahead to 2020, Cr Taylor said he has plans to finish the things his council group’s started.

“There’s a lot of money that’s come through from State and Federal government. We need to support that through a process of getting on with the tenders, getting building,” Cr Taylor said.

“Our $10 million loan from the State government… We need to deliver on that. It’s a lot of money put into recreation reserves, changerooms, and we’ve got to get on and build that.

“There’s that type of work, plus setting plans up for the future. This last 12 months, we want to get on, make sure that’s done. It’s in the budget, we need to deliver it.”

Initially, Cr Taylor wasn’t thinking about standing for Mayor, but with seven years of council experience under his belt, he decided to give it a go.

“It was just an opportunity that came up and I thought at the end, why not?” he said. “So here I am today, having the support of the councillors, which is the big thing, to be able to put my hand up and have their support to be the Mayor for the city.”

Passionate about community advocacy, Cr Coates is greatly honoured by her new title.

“It’s a good opportunity at any stage to have the status to act on behalf of the Mayor, if need be,” she said.

“Sustainability and social justice are core… One of our biggest opportunities is around action on climate change, our cover neutrality and 100 per cent renewables target for 2025.

“Another big challenge is waste and how we raise the bar, really improve our recycling systems and continue advocacy. It needs the support of all levels of government.

“If we get those things right, if we make our decisions in the best interests of the community for social and environmental benefit, we’ll have economic benefit for the city as well.”

Cr Samantha McIntosh said she was sad to be moving out of her mayoral role but pleased with what has been done.

“I’m proud as punch to have been able to achieve such a significant roll out of major projects,” she said.

“I’m over the moon that we’ve been able to put into our council plan, and have budgeted, a number of significant council projects for the future year, and for a following year with the new council.

“There’s a number of significant projects on the agenda that we’ve started working through, for instance, the fernery. I hope to see, in completion, that spectacular gothic fernery maybe mid next year.”

Heading into the fourth year of the current council group, Cr McIntosh is looking forward to more development of the Ballarat West Employment Zone precinct, a healthy environmental response to waste, the benefits of growing tourism numbers and further delivery of the events strategy.