Lesley Hewitt

Monday 16th September is the final meeting for this Council term, and then we head into caretaker mode before the Council elections. The meeting agenda can be found on the Council website. There are several items that are particularly relevant to Birch Ward residents: the 2023/2024 Annual Report and Financial Results, an update on both the Daylesford Town Hall community facilities and the Aquatic Strategy.

The final two weeks have been hectic with the endorsement of the Shire-wide structure plans, the 4 Year Financial Vision, and the announcement by the Local Government Inspectorate that it will never release a report into its five-year investigation of the Hepburn Hub at The Rex project. In its media release the LGI stated that it found insufficient evidence of criminal behaviour or of the need for disciplinary action but did however note that the current officer and councillor group had improved governance oversight. That is important but it denies the ratepayers an account of what happened and why, preventing accountability and transparency and impacting negatively on the community’s view of the current Council – both officers and councillors.

As previously reported the total cost of the Rex project was $9,3822,352 ($6,345000 purchase in 2016 and $3,037,352 additional expenses), after Councillors voted to stop the project, sale proceeds being $3,735,089, leading to a loss of $5,647263. Councillors are required to support Councillor decisions once made, whether they personally agree with those decisions or not. The Rex was an inherited project. I was one of the four Councillors who voted to stop the project and I did so when we had to approve a new construction contract that was estimated at the time to be an additional $9 million. Construction costs all over the state were blowing out and not all aspects of the Rex redevelopment were included in that contract. Basic maintenance of the Daylesford Town Hall had been neglected and Shire ratepayers could not afford to maintain two heritage buildings in the one street.

So, reflecting on the end of the Council term it’s clear that there have been difficulties. I was elected in 2020 and was the mayor in the first year of the new Council. The global COVID pandemic which started in 2019 was still impacting and much of the Council business was conducted virtually. We were in and out of lockdowns that had an impact on all of us – our children were being schooled virtually, our local businesses suffered as visitation dropped and so on. There are still ongoing consequences on all aspects of our lives, including on economic, social, emotional, health, business and housing aspects of our lives. Then in 2021 the first of the three storms hit. Overall storm recovery cost $15m, $12m of which has been provided by State and Federal government highlighting the importance of all levels of government working together. The overall cost to rate payers has been $3 million.

The recently endorsed Structure Plans for the Shire should mean that the Shire is better placed to manage ongoing development, housing needs and liveability. It has been a huge amount of work, one of the biggest community engagement projects undertaken by Council in years. Future generations of Hepburn Shire residents should benefit from this work.

As the term ends I want to publicly acknowledge all the officers for the work they have put in, particularly the way the whole team came together to deal with COVID emergencies (who can forget the line up at Victoria Park for testing), the three storm events (Council staff were responsible for running the emergency centres along with dealing with the physical impact of the storm) and the tragic accident that occurred in Daylesford almost a year ago. Our officers have stepped up whenever there has been an emergency whilst at the same time, continuing with their day-to-day responsibilities. Thank you also to my fellow Councillors and those community members who, whether they agreed with me or not, actually took the time to contact me and to put their views across. We all have different social networks and it’s only through those contacts that Councillors can understand the wide range of opinions and experiences that residents and ratepayers have.

I will be re-nominating for Council, and I look forward to speaking with you during the election period.