WIMMERA councils have pushed for the state and federal government to do more to ensure the sustainability of regional ares.
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Mayors from the region were among 38 councils that attended the Rural Councils Victoria annual meeting and forum on Thursday last week.
Rural Councils Victoria chairman and Hindmarsh councillor Rob Gersch said the forum focused on common issues many regional councils faced, including population decline and lack of funding.
“The government has recognised that there are 19 rural councils that are really struggling and the other 19 are not far behind,” he said.
“Nobody wants to put rates up, but we need a different formula for small rural councils.”
Cr Gersch said the Nationals and Liberal parties had promised to reinstate the previous Country Roads and Bridges funding program if re-elected at the next state election.
“We now need to work with the current government to ensure we have some form of support,” he said.
“We believe the government is well aware of our problems, it’s just a matter of how we can address it.
“Increasing rates is not the way to go – people in regional areas don’t have the capacity to pay for increased rates.
“We are not prepared to throw the towel in though – the government needs rural areas to continue, so we need to make sure they remain.”
Cr Gersch said the forum was extremely well attended.
Yarriambiack mayor Graeme Massey said it was important to find ways for small rural shires to survive.
“We have so many constraints in our income, rates and grants,” he said.
“The government needs to try to devise ways of helping us out, possibly by increasing our share of government grants.”
Cr Massey said one idea that was put forward was to look at new funding models for councils, based on roads.
“So the amount of roads a council has to looked after will be treated similarly to the amount of people councils look after,” he said.
