Busselton small business owner Jenny Taylor wants to contribute to the community and felt the time was right to nominate for a seat on the City of Busselton council.
Ms Taylor said the current council had achieved great progress over the last few years but it was time for new blood and more women with fresh ideas.
Ms Taylor strongly believed the region needed more indoor activities that were not just nine-to-five, targeting families, youth and tourists.
“That is my biggest issue, the biggest problem when the weather’s inclement, where can I go?” she said.
“If anybody can give me anything else other than the caves or the cinema then tell me, I need to tell the tourists when they come through the door,” she said.
A former ice-skater, Ms Taylor would like to see land become available for someone to develop a facility, such as an ice rink, which could be used by people of all ages for sport and recreation.
Ms Taylor said another issue which needed addressing was installing a pedestrian crossing on the bypass between Queen Elizabeth Avenue and Fairway Drive.
With more housing estates being developed on the southern end of the bypass, Ms Taylor said students had no means of crossing the road and there were no bike paths for cyclists or people walking their dogs.
Another issue on Ms Taylor’s radar was the decentralisation of Busselton’s central business district, and said it would be difficult to stop large department stores from setting up shop.
Ms Taylor said before more major discount stores came into town the council needed to look at where they would be placed otherwise Busselton would become like Bunbury.
“Kmart has been placed in a position where there will be other specialty shops, people will not shop in the CBD because there will be a supermarket as well,” she said.
“It will impact really hard on sole traders, I know a lot of them, I also had a business in the CBD and you are dependent on people in there.”
Another issue on Ms Taylor’s agenda was seeing more industries start up in the region off the back of the airport expansion.
She said while there were a lot of housing developments taking place in Busselton and Dunsborough there were few employment opportunities for people living in the region.
“Mandurah announced last week that it would provide a big industrial park to encourage people there, Mandurah also grew with lots of houses, they have a big crime rate and high unemployment,” she said.
“It could happen here and we are already seeing it with the mining boom dropping off.”
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The 2017 council nominees (links will be updated over the coming weeks):
- Grant Henley
- Kelly Hick
- Luke O’Connell
- Lorrae Loud
- Jenny Green
- Terry Best
- Rob Bennett
- Nerrilee Boshammer
- Lyndon Miles
- Valarie Kaigg
- Kailla Erickson
- Jo Barrett-Lennard