COUNCILS in the West are setting up a regional organisation but one council is refusing to join.
Hobsons Bay City Council will not join Wyndham, Melton, Moonee Valley, Maribyrnong and Brimbank because it thinks the new group won’t offer value for money.
The organisation – likely to be called LeadWest – is expected to be operating by the end of the year to manage region-wide issues and promote the West.
It will replace the Western Region Economic Development Organisation (WREDO), which went bust in February 2005 after nearly 10 years.
But Hobsons Bay mayor Carl Marsich said his council had voted against joining because the $100,000 or so each city will kick in to start the organisation might not translate into sufficient local benefits.
“From our perspective, many benefits can be skewed toward faster growing outer councils,” he said.
He said Wyndham and Melton got better use from improved regional road networks as one example.
Cr Marsich added that Hobsons Bay did not want to duplicate the work of its own existing groups in areas such as tourism promotion and graffiti management.
“We spend about $40,000 now on initiatives for the benefit of the region and we’re comfortable with that,” he said.
However, he said Hobsons Bay would consider joining the association in future.
“I’m not saying we won’t ever join, but we don’t want to commit ourselves until we see if the model is really going to benefit us,” he said.
Management consultancy BoardWorks International is now developing a constitution for the new group.
It is expected to be run by a board of directors led by an executive officer, and include council delegates from each city, as well as representatives from areas including health, industry, business and education.
A working group comprising the CEOs of Moonee Valley and Maribyrnong, and mayors from Melton, Wyndham and Brimbank will help establish the board’s final look.
Cr Bourke said the other five councils were disappointed Hobsons Bay had chosen not to join the group, but hoped it would change its mind down the track.
WREDO’s former executive director, Barbara McLure, said she was glad a new regional club was starting up.
“People have been waiting for it,” she said.
“The networks and knowledge of a regional organisation are very important.”
