Bunbury suburbs could have their own committees

EACH suburb and neighbourhood in Bunbury could have its own official committee that would be able to lobby on specific issues, under a plan being investigated by council staff.

Bunbury City Council voted 7-6 to cut councillor numbers over the next two local government elections but the final decision will be made by the State Government.

But Mayor Gary Brennan has thrown his support behind chief executive officer Andrew Brien examining the idea of neighbour committees to make up for the loss of representation.

Under Mr Brennan’s plan, which he describes as “participatory democracy”, each suburb in Bunbury could have its own committee and become the main stakeholder for issues or plans within their area.

Residents groups have been influential in recent times on council issues.

The Friends of Lovegrove were able to lobby the council against changing the traffic flow on Lovegrove Avenue, while the Withers Action Group has been given a place on the Withers Advisory Committee.

But this process would formalise these groups and give them a direct link to the council.

“Basically they are neighbourhood groupings of people to look at neighbourhood issues, ” Mr Brennan said.

Mr Brien will report back to the council later in the year. The idea comes after the council has significantly cut the number of its own committees in the past few years.