Options tabled for shire restructure

A RETURN to an unsubdivided shire, a split between Torquay, hinterland and coast regions, or Torquay divided from the rest of the shire are the options floated for Surf Coast Shire Council’s next electoral structure.

The Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) has released its preliminary report on the shire’s electoral structure review, which will change how ratepayers vote at the next council election in 2024.

The VEC reviewed 62 public submissions received earlier this year and examined population changes throughout the municipality as part of its initial report.

Its preliminary report proposed three potential models:

Model 1: an unsubdivided electoral structure with nine councillors

Model 2: a subdivided electoral structure with a total of eight councillors, two wards (Torquay and the rest of the shire) and four councillors per ward, and

Model 3: a subdivided electoral structure with a total of nine councillors, three wards (Torquay, Otway Range and Winchelsea wards) and three councillors per ward.

A three-ward, nine-councillor model similar to Model 3 was among the most popular suggestions during public submissions, with community group Aireys Inlet and District Association and sitting councillors Mike Bodsworth, Adrian Schonfelder and Liz Stapleton among its supporters.

Cr Rose Hodge, who was in office during the shire’s change to a subdivided ward system before the 2012 election, indicated she preferred an unsubdivided structure, which she argued would provide the best community outcomes.

Systems with either four two-councillor wards or nine single-councillor wards were also assessed, but the VEC reasoned that population changes would create too much volatility to ward boundaries for this map to be viable.

In general, submissions favoured retaining the existing system of nine councillors in various forms.

VEC has opened the draft models for public submissions, which close on April 12.

Submitters will have a chance to speak to their ideas at a public hearing on April 19, before the commission presents its final recommendation to the Local Government Minister by May 17.

The changes would take effect ahead of the 2024 council elections, when new state legislation requires rural shires to move away from subdivided ward structures with unequal numbers of councilors.