In welcoming our newly elected Clarence Valley councillors to their important positions as custodians of the interests of all ratepayers, may I make a gentle plea for them giving their utmost attention to the new Council’s public finances.

On listening to all the Council candidates give their final speeches to the Yamba Chamber of Commerce “convince the ratepayers” meeting, I came away with two major thoughts.

Firstly, most of these people intent on representing the citizens of the Clarence Valley reported themselves as having some form of advanced education. This is great in view of all the modern technicalities which now control all local government affairs and is a fresh breath of air compared to some previous councils.

My second conclusion, however, concerned the obvious lack of talk — and even the usual promises — about how Clarence Valley Council’s debt should be handled from here on — and how ratepayers can look forward to more attempts to curb future overspending.

Within my personal listening capacities, I basically did not hear one concise sentence dealing with a thoughtful plan offering suggestions as to how our community’s future finances should be handled and improved.

In these days of growing serious financial austerity, I expected to hear a few of the candidates give at least a short outline of their interest in the bottom line of Council finances.

All the speeches dealt with matters that, although important, are far less vital to the way the past Council, for instance, set itself up for major debt after demolishing and having to re-build the Treelands Drive Community Centre after only a very short lifetime.

I believe that Mr and Mrs Average are more concerned, as I am, with Council concentrating on delivering essential services without unnecessary expenditure and debt on such things as a monument to reckless spending.

As a journalist with a working life of over 70 years, I have reported on the affairs of many councils and parliaments. The successful institutions have always been those whose members were dedicated to — and capable of — keeping to their basic core business.

In our case here on the Clarence, our Council’s core business is the provision of good quality water; sewage removal and sanitation; waste collection; recycling; safe footpaths and roads; efficient street lighting; good town planning and the handling of building approvals and, most importantly, managing with safe hands all community infrastructure and assets, including equitably priced land rates.

In bygone years, some Valley councils have been all too happy to listen to far too many small interest groups instead of considering the financial good for all. This has been a source of ratepayer monies lost to more important matters and services.

Small interest groups also have to realise that councils are not charitable ‘banks’ with unlimited finances and need to curb their demands.

In former days, sports bodies and social groups never depended on services and grants from Council. Instead, they mowed their own fields, fenced them and, in cases of requiring some hard cash, would hold public money-making events to help their coffers.

In accordance with the Local Government Act, all counsellors are required to follow the principles of sound financial management. In doing so, they must ensure that their spending is responsible and sustainable and that they undertake investments in infrastructure for the benefit of our local community and not for any other reason such as “empire building” in Treelands Drive or anywhere else.

Being a counsellor is not a privilege or a step up on the social ladder. It is an opportunity for the right people to make a difference to peoples’ lives.

As a group, counsellors also have the serious responsibility to ensure that all Council bureaucrats attend to their jobs in accordance with the legislation that controls their working activities and decisions.

In wishing our new Clarence Valley local government leaders well, a last thought to them may be to always act independently according to their personal ethics and not to be sucked into political cliques. It is all a matter of people before politics.