Cr Bourke will be contesting his fifth council election but this is the first time he has put together a ticket for above-the-line voting.

He said his 13 years on council had shown him how difficult it could be to achieve change without strong support within the chamber.

“It just takes too long by yourself to get something done on the issues I’m concerned about,” he said.

“It took 12 years for me to get a crematorium here and 15 years just to get a security fence around the gasworks site. Hopefully by running a ticket I can get back into council with some support from my team to get things done.”

Cr Bourke said, if re-elected, he would continue fighting for a referendum on a publicly-elected mayor and ensure the Velocity Park second track development and roundabout on Mitre, Suttor and Lambert streets came to fruition.

He also wants to see council expand its program of renewable energy to power council-owned facilities.

Since 2009, council has installed solar panels across about a dozen sites including the Water Filtration Plant, Waste Water Treatment Plant, art gallery and library. However, Cr Bourke says more can be done.

“Council has an electricity bill of around $3 million so we need to keep working to keep that cost down,” he said.

“That could mean more solar panels or setting up battery farms. We also need to keep working with CENTROC to put pressure on electricity suppliers to get a better deal.”

Cr Bourke also wants improved lighting along Hereford Street. “There are currently half a dozen lights along two kilometres on Hereford Street,” he said.

Number two on Cr Bourke’s ticket will be Jacqui Rudge, who said her focus would be on pushing heritage and tourism issues within council.

“We need to have tourism 365 days a year,” Ms Rudge said. “The race track is a wonderful asset but we need to keep our businesses going the rest of the year and we need to present our heritage more.”

Mick Forde will be number three on the ticket with Steve Ellery and David “Curls” Conroy at four and five.