Dear Editor,
Well, apparently it’s time for the ratepayers of Cabonne to decide what services they can live without.
Council has put out a survey asking us to choose between cutting things like libraries, tourism, sporting facilities, pools, childcare, roads, footpaths and community services, because the budget has a “black hole” and current service levels are supposedly unsustainable.
I’m sorry, but isn’t deciding these things what we elected councillors to do?
I don’t remember putting my hand up at the last election to become an unpaid budget committee member.
I elected councillors to examine the finances, set priorities, make the hard decisions and then have the courage to stand behind them.
Of course council should listen to residents. But asking the public to pick which services get the chop feels less like consultation and more like a cop out.
What happens when the swimming pool is cut and the people who use it complain? “Well, you chose it.” When the library loses funding? “The community told us to.” When another service disappears? “It was in the survey.”
That’s a mighty convenient way to govern.
Running a council isn’t a popularity contest. Sometimes elected representatives have to make unpopular decisions because that is what they were elected to do.
So by all means, ask residents what matters to them. But please, councillors, stop asking us to do your job for you.
Wendy Williams
Canowindra