Former Taree City deputy mayor Alan Tickle and former deputy chair Mid Coast Water, has confirmed that he won’t be contesting the September Local Government Elections in September due to other community, family and business commitments.
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Mr Tickle, who was elected to the former council in 2004, held positions on a number of council committees including Finance, the Economic Development Partnership Board and was the chair of the Sport and Rec Committee which he had a key role in establishing in 2005.
He suggests that experience is needed for the MidCoast Council, and a team that shares the load across the whole Mid North Coast (LGA) is crucial.
“You will have elected councillors naturally aligned to an area of the LGA but provided that there is a sense of team that carries the load, coupled with good communication and leadership, the vast area can be ably and fairly represented,” Mr Tickle said.
“One of the early tasks for the new council will be to appoint a general manager and the future of Mid Coast Water has to be determined”
“There is a mass of policy documents that have not been reworked from the three former council’s policies.”
Essential Integrated planning policy documents will take a lot of re-working in my opinion before they can be exhibited and a sensitive issue is the Tree Preservation Policy (TPO) of the former Great Lakes Council.
“The financial challenges have not changed because the length of road and bridges are still there and the State government contribution from the amalgamation deal, is a drop of what is needed,” he said.
“There is plenty of work to be done and while I want to encourage candidates, they need to be well aware of what is involved, because the community will expect nothing less
“It generally takes a new councillor a couple of years before they are really effective despite heavy initial training and help from experienced colleagues.
“Given the massive undertaking, we need leadership that instills mutual respect, focusing on a team approach that aims to reach out to unite the whole MCC community.”
Candidate information sessions continue:
- June 21, Gloucester 5.30pm – 7pm and June 22, Gloucester noon - 2pm
- June 27, Forster 5.30pm – 7pm
- June 29, Taree noon - 2pm.