Robert Fleming says now is the time to stand up and seek election to the Corangamite Shire Council.
FORMER Camperdown mayor Robert Fleming says Corangamite Shire Council needs to maintain the businesses it already has.
Mr Fleming is running in this month’s council elections and said now was the time to stand up. He said his reason for running was a general interest in council and what was happening in the community.
“I’ve been to a few meetings recently and I just got interested,” he said.
“I’m just interested in what is happening in the shire.”
Mr Fleming said after having a smash repair business for 45 years he believed that now was a quiet time for a lot of local businesses.
“I think it’s always quiet after the footy season,” he said.
“The council really needs to work to maintain the businesses they have.”
Mr Fleming said he wanted to see the road at Lake Bullen Merri reopened and the information centre at the Camperdown courthouse permanently manned.
He said overall the current council was doing a reasonable job.
“I think they’re doing OK,” he said.
“I’m pretty pleased with the projects they’re doing.”
Mr Fleming was the mayor of the former Town of Camperdown in 1982 and 1983 and again in 1994 before the council amalgamated with the shires of Hampden and Heytesbury to form the Corangamite Shire.
Now semi-retired with a hire car business, Mr Fleming said the main job a councillor had to do was to listen to the community.
“I think the main thing is to listen to what people want and go from there,” he said.
“No one has got a crystal ball on what the future will bring. But this is a good shire.”
