Local area committees set to be formed in Port Macquarie and Wauchope

The first meetings of the Port Macquarie and Wauchope committees are planned in early February.

The Wauchope meeting will be at the Wauchope Community Arts Hall on February 7 from 7pm, while the date has yet to be confirmed for the Port Macquarie meeting.

The area committees, which will be formed as the result of a Residents Action Network (RAN) initiative, will meet regularly to discuss issues impacting their areas and raise the matters with Port Macquarie-Hastings Council.

The process started with a RAN public meeting in October 2018 to gauge interest in the area committee proposal.

Some 12 people expressed an interest at the meeting in area committee membership and RAN received some subsequent membership nominations.

RAN secretary Greg Franks said the interest had been encouraging.

“At the moment, we have the numbers to form a Wauchope committee and one Port Macquarie area committee,” he said.

Each committee will have six members at this stage.

The initial meetings will be a chance for members to meet and set down each committee’s parameters.

The Port Macquarie group will cover the entire Port Macquarie area, except for the North Shore, and the Wauchope committee will deal with issues west of the Pacific Highway apart from the Rollands Plains area.

RAN will initially assist with administration duties until the executive teams are in place.

The non-profit group will look to extend the local area committee initiative to Laurieton and Lake Cathie down the track as some interest has been shown from those areas.

RAN encourages people interested in joining local areas committees to get in touch through email at info@ran.org.au or call Greg Franks on 0434 991156.

The local area committees will not replace existing organisations.

Meanwhile, the council is amid a process of working with communities to develop a total of 18 community plans through to 2020.

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