Community figurehead Wes Fang has vowed the ratepayers’ group he founded will continue to keep politicians accountable under the leadership of Wagga veterinary clinician Dr Lynne Bodell.
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The Wagga Ratepayers’ Community has been a community force since its formation in December last year and featured heavily in the downfall of general manager Alan Eldridge in May.
Dr Bodell will take over the association’s reins effective immediately and told The Daily Advertiser she was excited to get underway in her new role.
“My parents were involved in a ratepayer group back in Sydney and I’ve always been interested in that side of things,” she said.
“I was involved early on with the Wagga group and I’m certainly keen to keep it alive and keep holding council to account, so when Wes suggested I take over I thought I’d give it a go.”
Dr Bodell said it was important for the community to keep an eye on comings and goings.
“It’s good be aware of what’s going on around you but people then need to make council aware of things those things,” she said.
“When you’re living in an ivory tower, it’s easy to lose sight of us mere mortals and I see our role as bringing certain things, even little things, to council’s attention.”
The Chaston Street business owner made reference to the poor distribution of Yellow and White Pages around the Wagga Wagga region as one such example.
“All sort of little things pop are and they’re not always directly linked to council - like how only a small percentage of phone books were delivered this year,” she said.
“People just need to know when there’s change.”
Mr Fang said his successor would be more than up to the task.
“Lynne is a self-made businesswoman who is well educated and really knows her stuff,” he said.
“Our relationship with council isn’t as adversarial as before and this is a great opportunity to usher in a new era of collaboration.”
Mr Fang said his new parliamentary role wouldn’t influence his status as a Wagga ratepayer and that he would continue keeping an eye on his brainchild.
“I’m always going to be a ratepayer of Wagga and I’ll always be involved but others are running the show now,” he said.