’Work well underway to restore council to its former glory’

Mayor says fast-tracked developments, financial scrutiny keys to righting ship

Mayor Glen Hartwig says the council is well into its efforts to restore the region’s ratepayers’ faith in the organisation.

YOUR new council just reached the end of its fourth month in office and it has been a hard and challenging process to begin restoring the organisation back to its former glory. As the old cliche goes, it won't happen overnight but it will happen.

Council is united with staff in changing the culture regarding how residents and the business community engage with us by adopting a new "how can we help" mantra.

This new mantra involves council working closely with the community and key stakeholders to set the future direction for the region and I encourage everyone to contact their councillor or myself if you have any suggestions, ideas or feedback.

The council’s planning department has started its work to fast-track some subdivision developments in the region.

We are your voice on where the Gympie region heads in the future.

We have already started to see the results of this hard work paying off as our Planning and Development team has commenced fast-tracking a program of staged subdivision developments.

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These developments will provide housing and business opportunities throughout the region.

As we move to steer the ship in the right direction, I am reminded of the findings of the Financial Management Review completed by CPA Australia earlier this year to not only see how far we have come but to highlight the desperate need for financial accountability during these uncertain times.

Mayor Hartwig is urging people with concerns or feedback to raise them with councillors.

We are living in a period where everyone needs to tighten their financial belts and council is now doing its part to restore faith to the ratepayer.

The days where financial management is regarded to be of secondary importance are over, and council is ensuring that all projects are scrutinised with a fine-tooth comb to uncover their true cost and that they are in the best interest of the community.

I encourage everyone to tune into council's Facebook page for the live streaming of the council meetings to see what projects and challenges are facing the community and, importantly, how you are being represented by your council.

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