Letter to the editor

I note Shepparton News columnist John Gray’s latest ramblings (January 1) continuing his series of bullying articles against our Ratepayers Association (formerly Better Local Government Association Inc).

John Gray’s latest ‘‘broadside’’ appeared to concentrate on the fact that we were not an ‘‘incorporated association’’.

We have never claimed to be, nor do we have to be incorporated.

We are just an association of concerned Shepparton ratepayers.

An association concerned about the continued waste in council administration; concerned about the secret sale of council land; concerned about the millions of dollars of ratepayers’ money gifted to certain developers without any public or councillor consultation; concerned about flood studies using Goulburn-Murray Water channel banks as levies to advantage some at the expense of others; and concerned about the continued deterioration of our city by stupid decisions made by some council officers, mostly in secret, often without the overview of our elected councillors and without any public consultation and transparency.

Our members had spent six years operating as the Better Local Government Association Inc, where we tried and failed to get a better local government for Shepparton.

While we were able to help get some (far) better councillors elected, we failed to get rid of all of the ones, in our opinion, who simply closed their eyes to the plight of many of our business people, farmers and general ratepayers and vote just how the officers tell them to.

This is why we changed our name, because until there are some serious investigations into some decisions made by some council officers we will never have a ‘‘better local government’’ for Shepparton.

This is what we stand for; just what is it that you stand for, John?