Debate over Sunbury out of Hume vote

SUNBURY residents are set to debate the merits of starting their own municipality in the lead up to the Sunbury out of Hume vote.

Sunbury Residents' Association president Bernie O'Farrell.

SUNBURY residents will debate the merits of starting their own municipality at a forum next month.

Organised by the Sunbury Residents' Association, the meeting aims to rally residents to vote for succession from Hume, association president Bernie O'Farrell said.

"The federal election is diverting attention from the vote (in October) but it will be up to us to rise above," he said.

Mr O'Farrell said the association wrote to Local Government Minister Jeanette Powell in the wake of the most recent KPMG report, which detailed the potential costs of separation.

The letter complained about the methodology used by the auditing firm, including the split of Sunbury services and costs (20 per cent) relative to the rest of Hume (80 per cent) and the assumption council would operate the same set of services.

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The September 18 meeting will invite prominent residents with knowledge of council workings to present their opinions, especially relative to rate rises.

The KPMG report forecasted a 14.2 per cent annual rate rise for Sunbury residents over the first four years, should it break away from Hume.

Sunbury councillor Jack Ogilvie believes a new council would have far more flexibility over rates than what the report indicated.

"The conjecture over this 14.2 per cent figure has got to the stage where it is ridiculous, its 8.9 per cent above the Hume rate rises of 5.3 per cent, which is very unlikely to be achieved anyway with the growth about to happen in Craigieburn," he said.

"I still talk to people who tell me 'we don't care how much the rate rise is, just get us out of Hume'."

Cr Ogilvie said multi-million projects for Craigieburn would give Sunbury residents further incentive to set out on their own.

The Sunbury Out of Hume vote will be considered after the collection of postal ballots due on October 25.

The forum is at Sunbury Memorial Hall on September 18 from 7.30pm.