Mayor Bellingham appears to be the spokesman for the Southern Downs Regional Council so I assume he is speaking for all the councillors when he reportedly stated in the Southern Free Times 28/7/11: “I’m sick of being the whipping boy for the State Government regulations”.
The job that these councillors applied for and said they were capable of doing was to run this Shire on the ratepayers’ behalf. They were elected and paid by the ratepayers on this expectation. They were not elected and are not paid by the State Government. If elected representatives cannot achieve expectations, then there is a substantial financial saving to be made for ratepayers by not employing them. If the local councils are just a department of the State Government, then why are we wasting money even having local elections? Let the State Government run the shire and in doing so, it will at least halve the excuses.
Mike Downing
Main meat markets improved
Weather played a factor on the import of numbers for the weekly sales. It was great for the area to receive the falls but...
