Corangamite Shire has come under fire from rural residents who say they are not seeing enough for the rates they pay.
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Robbie Leishman and Clarke Roycroft addressed the council on Tuesday night calling for a cut to bureaucracy and a more equitable system for farmers.
Mr Leishman said he wanted to represent the farmers of the shire, who he said got “absolutely nothing” for their rates.
“I think it’s an exorbitant rate charge that we pay because farmers get absolutely nothing from the shire,” he said.
Mr Leishman said he was frustrated after applying for a permit to graze roadsides and now feared red tape was leading to unsafe conditions.
“We’ve got phalaris five-foot high growing on both sides of the road. I applied for a permit to strip graze it so we could get out the gate because it is absolutely dangerous, someone could be absolutely killed there,” he said.
“I fenced off the area, I put in for a permit and the permit was knocked back because there was some prickly moses growing on the road and it might damage it.”
Mr Leishman said he was on a fire truck during the Ash Wednesday fires when roadside phalaris caused “huge problems” for the people battling the blaze.
“We’ve got the phalaris growing there, the same as what happened in the Ash Wednesday fires. If anyone could have seen that fire come down that Laang road and burn Ecklin out they would realise how bad that phalaris is and it stays in my mind,” he said.
Mr Roycroft agreed with Mr Leishman’s comments, adding that the public service was “out of control”.
“We get flogged all around and it doesn’t matter whether it’s local, state or federal – the public service is totally out of control,” he said.
“Our rates are out of control. What do we get? We’ve got a farm at Bookaar, we see a grader once every two years, perhaps.”
Councillor Bev McArthur said the views expressed were on the minds of many people.
“The vast majority of ratepayers in this municipality are rural landowners and they pay the bulk of the rates and the bulk of the money is spent in towns,” she said.
“In this area we’re an incredibly productive rural municipality and we have to be very aware of where the money comes from.
“If we want to maintain roadsides we should facilitate in every possible way landowners to help us do that.”
Cr Lesley Brown said she was encouraged to join the council after always enjoying good support from Corangamite Shire during her involvement in community groups. She encouraged people to bring their issues to councillors.
“I would ask you, if you have got concerns to come and talk to us… and see if we can sort it out,” she said.