Open your eyes and start thinking legacy - what mess are you going to make or what legacy are you going to leave?
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That is the question Taree businessman, Alan Tickle poses to the MidCoast Council upon standing for a place on the Saturday, December 4 election.
Mr Tickle previously served on Greater Taree City Council from 2004 to 2016, including one term as deputy mayor in 2012.
And did not seek a place on the merged MidCoast Council in 2017 due to other community, family and business commitments.
He is confident he will return to local government.
Mr Tickle believes MidCoast Council's engagement with the community has definitely been lacking, which was partly caused by the disruption the amalgamation caused in terms of the administrative focus.
However, now that administration is on track, he suggests the elected councillors need to get on with their role, open their ears and listen to the community.
"They were busy, I understand that. There was a lot going on with the amalgamation, but to know where the community is coming from is critical."
They were busy, I understand that. There was a lot going on with the amalgamation, but to know where the community is coming from is critical.
- MidCoast Council candidate, Mr Alan Tickle
To address this, Mr Tickle believes it is imperative to have the elected body get together as soon as possible to carry out a pledge to the community, and to sort out any personal issues.
He hopes by doing so, the elected body will realise the community needs to be driving the direction and not simply being led along.
"And you can't realise that if you are basically locking yourself in the council chambers."
Mr Tickle believes if you have community committees that are "top down" with council, it won't work.
"The same goes for economic development. Where economic development has been successful in the past is when there is drive from the business community.
"So, if you have those community stakeholders driving the improvement of sustainability in an area, it also improves council's capacity."
Mr Tickle established the Manning Great Lakes Community Health Action Group Inc in 2016, and said they are looking into the local environment plan to identify an area for a new hospital in the area.
He said Hunter New England Health has successfully identified a greenfield site for a regional type hospital to serve the Manning Great-Lakes area.
"It might be Rainbow Flat, it could be Failford. That may not occur for 10, 15, 20 years but it requires planning to allocate where this ought to be."
This brought Mr Tickle to his other point - thinking in legacy, which he believes the MidCoast Council prior to this has been lacking.
"You can't think about just your current term (two years nine months), you have to start thinking of the legacy ahead of that and what you are putting in place that will grow and benefit the area.
If you are just going to think about your term and getting reelected, then what are you going to leave?
- Mr Alan Tickle
"If you are just going to think about your term and getting re-elected, then what are you going to leave?"
Mr Tickle said these frustrations stem back to the Greater Taree City Council's decision making on the development of the now Coles at Old Bar, which he was against.
"I opposed it. I said it is going to be a short term fix, and you are going to leave Old Bar with an absolute nightmare in the future, when there was an opportunity for rezoning.
"If they were thinking legacy, they could say 'well if we rezone further west of Old Bar, then the shopping complex could develop around that and you leave the other part of Old Bar passive, laid back and relaxed."
He said that was an example of 'I told you so'.
"It was going to be obvious. I guess that's the frustrations I sometimes have with the decision making.
"What is the impact of our decisions in 10, 15, 20 years time - that is what we need to be thinking.
"It involves appropriate dialogue with the stakeholders, with State government, Federal government and the community to work together. And that doesn't happen often enough and it doesn't happen well."
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