Two suburbs to be given their own wards in council expansion
Two suburbs could be given their own wards, and the number of councillors increased, if a VEC review for Banyule Council is adopted. See which suburbs would be affected.
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Banyule would get two extra councillors and see the number of wards increased to nine under a recommendation by the Victoria Electoral Committee.
The VEC has finished its review of the council’s structure and recommended changing from seven single councillor wards to nine.
A VEC review must be conducted every 12 years.
In the lead up to the review, several options were circulated as councillors suggested smaller wards with nine single-serving councillors, or three larger wards, with three councillors in each.
The proposal to retain seven single councillors was supported by only one public submission and 18 submitters supported to increase the number of councillors to nine.
The VEC review, released on October 16, recommended Banyule be split into nine single councillor wards, with Viewbank and Ivanhoe given their own wards.
In the submission phase, Banyule Council argued there was no requirement or evidence to support an increase in councillor numbers.
In a separate submission, Cr Craig Langdon suggested the number of councillors did not need to be increased for voters to be better represented.
Banyule has had seven single member wards since the 1990s.
It has the highest voter to councillor ratio of all metro councils.
Banyule Mayor Wayne Phillips said of the options presented by the VEC, council was pleased with the recommendation of maintaining single member wards.
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“Council has always maintained that Banyule’s current structure of seven single-councillor wards has served the community well and would continue to provide the most effective structure to meet the needs of the community,” Mr Phillips said.
In the lead up to the VEC’s review, Nillumbik Cr Peter Clarke called for a shock merge of the two councils.
This was slammed in a Heidelberg Leader Facebook poll, where 76 out of 98 people said they would not support the proposal in July.
The VEC provided the recommendation to Local Government minister Adem Somyurek, who will now decide whether to implement it.
Any changes would apply at the next general council election in October 2020.
courtney.beaumont@news.com.au