BendigoWeekly www.bendigoweekly.com.au
ISSUE 1071 FRIDAY, MAY 25, 2018
Stars hit the heights Girton Grammar students took to the air this week during the school’s preproduction of Peter Pan – A Musical Adventure, which they will perform at the Ulumbarra Theatre in June. The students, who portray the Darling siblings Wendy, John and Michael along with Peter Pan, rehearsed this week in the school’s Black Box theatre in preparation for the show opening on June 14.
PAY OUT Photo: ANDREW PERRYMAN
By SHARON KEMP
A FORMER City of Greater Bendigo mayor has taken aim at the council’s revenue raising measures, calling for a review of parking and a discounted waste charge for frugal seniors who create very little rubbish. Peter Cox was mayor in 2014, succeeded the next year by Rod Fyffe and then voted out of office in the 2016 election. Before leaving, Mr Cox called for the council to reduce its staff costs as a matter of urgency. In his submission to the coun-
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Former mayor hits out at gouging
cil’s 2018-19 draft budget, he lamented that employment expenses still accounted for 35 per cent of the budget. Mr Cox also suggested there was unnecessary cost gouging in CBD parking fees to which councillors and some council staff might be oblivious because they had access to free parking. “Since leaving council this has hit home harder with me as I now
have to pay about $3.40 for each visit I make to the Bendigo CBD,” he said in his submission. Mr Cox calculated parking was raising three times more than it cost, $4.6 million compared to $1.6m. “As council has a policy that ensures the CBD is a strong and vibrant centre, it seems that one policy contradicts the other,” he said. “The purpose of parking fees is to move vehicles on once they have
councillors have lost out? – Page 3
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reached their allocated time. “It is fair enough for the policy to be cost neutral and not paid by those drivers who do not use the CBD, but it is unprincipled to collect fees so that other services are subsidised by parking fees. “Council may wish to consider raising fines for those offending parking restrictions but I would encourage a review.” It was unfair, also, for people
not fully using the waste pick up service to have to pay the full charge including the $25 increase for recyclables collection. Seniors on a pension were paying the same amount in waste charges as a family of four earning $200,000, Mr Cox said. Rather than act to mitigate the rising costs of recycling, councillors merely passed the costs on to ratepayers. And they had failed to sell the savings that would come from halving waste collection by moving to a fortnightly pick up. Continued Page 7
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