Submissions close for shire’s structure review

SUBMISSIONS closed this week for ideas on how the internal boundaries of the Surf Coast Shire can be redrawn to make it fit with new state government legislation.

The shire is one of the first local government authorities to take part in the Victorian Electoral Commission’s (VEC) electoral structural review.

The new rules, which took effect in 2020, change what type of electoral structures are allowed for councils, and will apply at the next council election in October 2024.

Surf Coast Shire is classified as a rural shire council so must be either unsubdivided, have an equal number of councillors in multi-councillor wards, or have single-councillor wards.

This conflicts entirely with the shire’s existing structure of four wards with an unequal number of councillors (four in Torquay Ward, two each in Anglesea Ward and Winchelsea Ward, and one in Lorne Ward).

In her group’s submission – one of more than 20 received by the VEC – Aireys Inlet and District Association (AIDA) president Charlotte Allan proposed dividing the shire in four to align with “common interests and issues” with two or three councillors each:

Torquay would be split into two wards (North Torquay and South Torquay/Bells Beach)

One ward for the hinterland (Winchelsea), and

One ward for the coastal communities of Anglesea, Aireys Inlet, Fairhaven, Moggs Creek, Eastern View and Lorne (West Coast).

“The coastal communities already have links between community organisations, and share many of the same concerns, such as caring for the coastal environment, pressures of tourism and traffic on the Great Ocean Road, public infrastructure and the impacts ofclimate change, particularly dealing with bushfires and erosion along the coast and the vulnerability of the Great Ocean Road,” Ms Allan wrote.

Lorne Community Connect suggested a shire with nine wards, each with one councillor, was the most appropriate for “a very diverse shire” with “a number of very diverse community interest groups”.

“A single ward structure has proven to be very Torquay-centric and coastal and rural communities were disadvantaged,” Lorne Community Connect president Lesley Goldsworthy wrote.

“Since the introduction of a ward system some six or seven years ago, there has been a rebalance of equity across the whole Surf Coast Shire.”

Two incumbent Surf Coast Shire councillors also made submissions.

Cr Adrian Schonfelder preferred the status quo of nine councillors, with either individual wards with Aboriginal names including separate wards for Lorne and Winchelsea, or three wards of three councillors each named Jan Juc (Torquay), Managwahwz (Aireys Inlet, Anglesea and Lorne) and Modewarre (Moriac and Winchelsea).

Cr Mike Bodsworth’s proposal was similar to AIDA’s, and favoured a three-ward structure – Torquay (the most developed part of Torquay), Coastal (west of Torquay and inland to the top of the Otway ridge) and Rural/Hinterland (everywhere else) – of three councillors each, or four wards (splitting Torquay into two wards) of either two or three councillors each.

The VEC will publish a preliminary report on March 22.

For more information, head to vec.vic.gov.au/electoral-boundaries/council-reviews/electoral-structure-reviews/surf-coast