By Danielle Kutchel
Casey Council met for a single purpose on Tuesday 8 June: to consider public submissions to its council budget, council plan and a suite of other strategic documents.
The documents were released on Wednesday 19 May for public consultation and the consultation period closed on Wednesday 2 June.
Over that time, the council received 39 responses via its Casey Conversations webpage from approximately 1558 visits to the page, with two formal submissions made on the documents.
This level of engagement through Casey Conversations was “significantly lower” than that seen in previous years, according to the council.
Casey Residents and Ratepayers Association (CRRA), which authored one of the submissions, elected to present at the council meeting.
Spokesperson Brendan Browne said the association was deeply concerned about the proposed rates increase in the coming financial year.
“It’s a particularly worrying time at the moment with a lot of people across Casey facing financial difficulties,” he told Star News.
“We know in Casey there’s a lot of people who face mortgage stress.
“There were parts of Casey that are were among the most severely affected by the Covid lockdown last year, even once the JobKeeper program was taken into account.”
He said the council’s hardship policies were “inadequate”.
“It’s OK to say, ‘pay your rates bill next year’, but it’s a huge amount of stress on people,” he said.
Mr Browne said CRRA did not believe that the council would change their minds on the proposed rates rise.
He criticised the community engagement process too, saying it lacked “integrity”, and said the consultation period was “a very short amount of time” which may have contributed to the small number of submissions on the strategic documents.
“I think people learn after a while that it’s not worth engaging in the process if they’re not listened to. This needs to be turned around,” he said.
At the meeting, Casey’s three administrators thanked those who had made submissions on the strategic documents.
Administrator Cameron Boardman said the feedback was “constructive” and “welcomed”.
Mr Browne recommended anyone who was facing difficulties paying their rates bill to reach out to a local charity or service, like Casey North Community Information and Support Service or Cranbourne Information and Support Service, for assistance.
