Warrnambool City Council dominated the headlines this week after councillors voted 5-2 to push for a 4.5 per cent rates rise for each of the next three years.

Their wish for such a rise needs to be ticked off by the Essential Services Commission because it goes beyond the state government's cap of 2.5 per cent.

The council's reasons for the rise are understandable on the surface - assets need to be upgraded, the city is growing and other levels of government have long been shifting the delivery of key services on to it.

But the way the council went about pushing for the rates rise is what's upset many ratepayers.

The council spent $30,000 on a consultant to gauge feedback on a likely rise. Overwhelmingly the rise was rejected.

Mayor Tony Herbert, who called for an operation-wide review, posed the question of whether the council should run and fund services that compete with private enterprise.

He effectively questioned whether the city should operate the saleyards (which it should be pointed out operate at a surplus), the gym at AquaZone and among other services, childcare centres.

New chief executive officer Peter Schneider on Friday revealed the organisational review would be completed. It is an important step, it's crunch time for the council. It needs to make some hard decisions, it needs to find efficiencies. This is something that should have happened before the prospect of a hefty rate rise was revealed.

Ratepayers are more likely to accept a rise if everything possible to save dollars has been done first. But they also need to understand what their rates' fund and the list we published this week makes interesting reading.

A feel-good story of the week was the release into the wild of penguins Fatso and Grumpy, who were nursed back to good health by volunteers. Photographer Morgan Hancock's photos, including the one above, were simply stunning.

Here's some other stories that made headlines this week.

Until next week,