Wyndham Councillor Henry Barlow quits due to power hungry social climbers
A former Wyndham mayor has pulled out of the race for Chaffey Ward at the upcoming council election, taking a few parting shots on the way out — and he didn’t miss many.
West
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Wyndham Councillor Henry Barlow has quit the council in disgust over the “egos” and “wannabes” he said are plaguing the council.
In a shocking move the Chaffey Ward representative has called on the Local Government Inspectorate to monitor next month’s Wyndham Council election, saying it was necessary to weed out dummy candidates.
Cr Barlow has lived in Wyndham for more than 50 years and was first elected to the council in 1997.
He announced on Friday he would not contest the upcoming election.
Prior to making the announcement, he told the Leader he was proud of his time with the council but wanted people to know the reason why he was leaving.
“I had all the plans to run. My concern is the new council could be unworkable, I thought what’s the point,” Cr Barlow said.
“At the last election it was a debacle, we were all over the front pages with dummy candidates running for council and I’m worried it’s happening again.
“It set a record, it was the highest number of candidates of any council.”
Wyndham Council was investigated in 2017 after more than 90 candidates stood for election in 2016.
At least 60 candidates have so far put their hands up for a seat on the council at the forthcoming election.
And Cr Barlow said while councils were a great way to get a feel for politics before running for a state or federal seat, some people just saw it as stepping stone and had no genuine concern for the community.
Worryingly, he said other candidates, such as developers or real estate agents, could stand to benefit financially by being on the council because they would have a say in planning decisions and access to privileged inside information.
“Sometimes people come to the council for the wrong reason, I just can’t get over the egos,” Cr Barlow said.
“People for some reason think that being on council gives you the opportunity to publicise yourself. I’m not saying this is new, it probably happens in many Australian council areas.
“(But) they want to be seen as leaders in their community and, as I said, people will do it because they see it as a step in their political careers and others are genuine about their community.
“The monitor needs to come in and monitor how the elections are run. If certain people get elected they’re going to have definite conflicts of interest.”
Cr Barlow said maintaining the council’s facilities such as its community centres, sport grounds and childcare centres while sticking within the State Government’s 2 per cent rate cap would be its biggest challenge moving forward.
He complimented hard working council staff and said the council’s partnership with Western United Football Club on plans for a new stadium was one of his proudest recent achievements.
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