AN ADVOCACY group meeting has identified recruiting professionals to Horsham as a priority.
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Horsham Rural City is one of the 10 regional cities in Victoria that form Regional Cities Victoria. Representatives from Ballarat, Bendigo, Geelong, Latrobe, Mildura, Shepparton, Wangaratta, Warrnambool and Wodonga councils form the advocacy group. The group met on February 14 to discuss its priorities for the next 12 months.
Horsham Rural City mayor Mark Radford said attracting professionals to regional cities was a common problem for each municipality.
"Every council had the same story about vacancies for professionals and attracting people to the region for the positions," he said.
Cr Radford said Horsham faced challenges attracting professionals from the health, education and policing industries to the region.
Horsham council chief executive Sunil Bhalla said staff turnover, rather than growth, mostly caused vacancies.
"There is some growth in Horsham and we would like to think there has been a growing demand for services, but the vacancies would predominantly be the turnover of staff," he said.
Mr Bhalla said the council was working on multiple actions to help attract professionals to Horsham. He said the council was working with Regional Cities Victoria to advocate the state and federal governments for help.
"There is not one thing that is going to make a difference. It's a combination of different actions and it's about how we can support the existing retail and economy to make it easier for new businesses to invest," he said.
Horsham council has its own advocacy priorities to see job growth and has worked with the Wimmera Development Association to bring investment and jobs to the region. The council has developed a long-term plan to activate the Wimmera River and central business district with new services.
Other priorities listed at the meeting included transport, population planning and management, infrastructure planning and funding and local government financing and funding.
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