Council skips January meeting ahead of 2023 road trips

THE Surf Coast Shire council has elected not to hold a meeting this month, with its next sitting on February 28 to be 11 weeks after it last convened on December 13.

The shire’s acting general manager of strategy and effectiveness Damian Waight said the decision was made at the November meeting when council resolved its 2023 meeting schedule, “which was communicated via our website at the same time”.

“The first meeting for 2023 will be held in February as the items of business for this period could be scheduled in the December 2022 and February 2023 meetings.”

The shire held council meetings in each of the 12 months of 2022.

The 2023 schedule includes a plan to restart touring council meetings in wards across the shire that have not occurred since before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s a really exciting opportunity to take council agendas into the community and hopefully have more people, we welcome people to Torquay, but it’s terrific to see some locals, Lorne, Winchelsea, Anglesea, to not travel so far and attend a council meeting in person,” Cr Libby Stapleton said.

“Obviously with COVID it made it difficult to get out and about, but we are in a better position to do that now… other than that all other meetings will continue to be held at council chambers in Torquay, continuing to offer hybrid options for councillors, and of course the live streaming for our community who are unable to attend in person.”

Cr Bodsworth said he welcomed the external ward meetings by the council that will be held once a quarter.

“I just find that over the past two years on the council, I’ve found those times when your together in the same room with community members in their own communities are the best times that I’ve spent so I hope that same feeling comes into the council meetings in the wards and that we get that great exchange and personal contact that helps to make the whole thing more real for people, and I think it’s more rewarding for us as well.”

The 2023 council meeting schedule was passed unanimously.