The responses are in…

Colourful overlapping silhouettes of hands voting in fabric texture

The responses for the 2020 Democracy 4 Dinner Candidate Questionnaire for the Mount Alexander Shire Election are in.
Castlemaine’s Democracy 4 Dinner spokesperson Bryn Davies said 14 of the 18 candidates responded.
Mr Davies said all fourteen candidates who responded to the survey said that it is either ‘extremely important’ or ‘very important’ that Mount Alexander Shire Council commit to actions which contribute to tackling climate change.
“Housing affordability was the issue candidates had heard most often in their campaign. It is also was the equal most selected ‘top priority’ by our candidates along with waste management,” he said.
On waste, the largest number of candidates said council’s priority should be to work with the community to reduce the amount of waste produced (seven), followed by improving the amount and effectiveness of recycling in the shire (four). Two said the priority should be an annual/biannual hard rubbish collection, and one reviewing upgrading the waste transfer station/s.
“More candidates selected ‘Improving walking and cycling infrastructure’ as their top roads and infrastructure priority than any other issue. However, all those who did were from Castlemaine Ward,” he said. 
“Five candidates also listed ‘Paths, cycling and pedestrian infrastructure’ in their top three priorities, the equal second most selected priority.”
“In total eight candidates said the current rates were ‘too high’, two said ‘about right’ and five answered that ‘it’s not that simple’,” Mr Davies said.
Community members can view the analysis by theme at democracy4dinner.org
The full results for Castlemaine Ward, Loddon Ward and Tarrengower Ward are available at http://www.castlewiki.com/ 

Lisa Dennis
Editor of the Castlemaine Mail newspaper and senior journalist on our sister paper the Midland Express. Over the last 24 years Lisa been proudly reporting news in the Mount Alexander and Macedon Ranges communities.