Now that the make up of our Council has been finalised, there is one issue that should be central in minds of Councillors.
The most significant issue that they, and their admin staff, will have to deal with over the next few years and decades is the impact of climate change.
Many Councils, including our own, have already had to deal with those impacts in recent years as a result of catastrophic events such as floods and fires of unprecedented severity.
I urge them to turn their minds to how they can lead the Council to support local community members to cope with and, importantly, respond to the rising global temperatures, erratic weather events and other climate change impacts.
As important as it is that Councils become more sustainable, as organisations in their own right, it is critical that local Councils support their local communities to cope with and adapt to the changes, and where possible, to mitigate their impact.
Unfortunately, for many Councils, including our own, their own organisational response to climate change has been the major focus.
They need to step up and take on a role that leads the community and supports the community. Only the elected Councillors can bring about that change in focus.
That is leadership, rather than management!
One area in which local Councils can have a dramatic impact on cost of living pressures on their local community is by not just supporting, but by driving the development of, local community based power supply projects and the installation of solar panels and batteries.
As pressure to develop large scale solar farms and wind farms grows across NSW the opportunity exists for Councils to leverage their support by negotiating deals with developers that actually support the local community, as was done recently in Hay.
According to Hay Shire Council’s economic development manager Ali McLean, as quoted on ABC Local News, the fact that the Council took a proactive approach led to “… agreements for cheaper electricity for the whole town and long-term projects for education, housing and healthcare.”
The Council acted early to engage their local community in discussions to identify desired positive outcomes from the development of large scale solar and wind projects and then negotiated with the developers.
Imagine if the then Glen Innes Severn Council had taken the lead like Hay has back when the wind farm proposals were in the offing. Instead of community grants we could have had cheaper power for all.
There is no reason Council can’t adopt this approach in any major developments into the future.
Its over to you Councillors!
-M McNamara, Glen Innes
23rd November, 2024
