A CONSISTENT theme heading into the council election earlier this month was a call for change inside the chamber. Well, that's exactly what the voters have delivered.
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There will be five new faces inside the chamber in the greatest shake-up we've seen since the first Bathurst Regional Council was elected in 2005.
Now the real work begins.
The greatest challenge for the new council is to restore the community's faith in the way council is run. The previous term of council was marred by deep divisions within the chamber and, even worse, some ugly personal disputes.
Our community does not want and does not need a council where all nine members think alike. But while we can tolerate - and even encourage - differences of opinion on points of policy, it is in no one's best interests for those differences to descend into personal abuse. We want a council where all members respect the views of others and where points of policy are debated openly and frankly to arrive at the best outcome for our community.
The new council must also continue working with local indigenous communities on the future of Mount Panorama-Wahluu.
An application for an expanded in Section 10 has inevitably raised new concerns about potential impacts on Mount development and it will be council's relationship with indigenous elders that goes a long way to determining how that plays out.
Water security remains a perennial issue for all councils with our changing climate seeming to mean hotter, drier drought periods punctuated by wetter, cooler flood times. Some might say that's the way it's always been but the extremes of climate seem more pronounced now than ever.
But what we really want from this new council is a vision for moving Bathurst forward.
We want the sort of thinking that brought the NRL here, brought the national BMX championships here and even brought Elton John here.
It's not just about making the most of the assets we have but also building the assets we don't yet realise we need.
Bathurst has a number of competitive advantages over other regional centres in terms of proximity to Sydney and our diversified economy and we want an energetic, imaginative council that ensures we capitalise on those assets.
Let['s see what they deliver.
What do you think?
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