By Oliver Lees
Macedon Ranges council will dissolve its Health and Wellbeing Advisory Committee (HWBAC) after seven years following a lack of engagement from its members.
At a council meeting last week, a majority of councillors voted to remove the committee and instead pursue other means of engaging the community on the topic of health, after an annual review found that only two of the six members had attended the requisite amount of meetings.
HWBAC is currently made up of just six members who meet for times a year to provide input into council policy.
It was a recommendation of HWBAC to make council’s Health and Wellbeing Plan and Disability Action Plan standalone documents. The first version of both of those documents were approved at this meeting.
Cr Mark Ridgeway said the decision “was not taken lightly” but was made in consultation with the remaining members.
He said council would look to other means of engaging the community.
“It’s sad to see something like this dismantled, but we do need to look at other avenues,” Cr Ridgeway said.
“Considerable effort and significant resources have been put into the committee over the last few years in an effort to try and keep the committee operating and to bring it up to an optimal level. And despite all that effort and all of that work, we’re unable to actually achieve that and we still experienced a disappearing membership base.”
Cr Geoff Neil said he would like to see council try again to salvage the committee.
“We’ve got a young and vibrant community, and I’m very sure there would be members of that community that would be very much inclined to become part of a health and wellbeing committee to this council,” Cr Neil said.
“It is not good governance to divest ourselves of direct community input.”
HWBAC chair Cr Janette Pearce said council had tried “many things” to keep the committee up and running, including seeking new members.
“Connection to community and hearing their thoughts is a priority, [but this decision] is regarding this particular committee,” Cr Pearce said.
“I don’t feel we are disengaging, we will engage in a different way.”
