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Thursday, 30 November, 2023
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New-look shopping strip
From fantasy to reality
Bargains galore
Hometown win in Cup
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New Coles St Germain
Your new Coles is now open 21 St Germain Boulevard 12628639-SN48-23
Under the elms Christmas is the right season to talk about trees. Christmas Under the Elms, an ingenious celebration on Tulliallan Boulevard in Clyde North, combined the tree conservation and festive mood to the utmost on Sunday 26 November. Run by the non-profit organisation Friends of the Tulliallan Elms, the festivities were held against the backdrop of a lush English elm avenue with 51 trees down each side that have been standing still in the time since 1900. Story page 7
Santa and local residents Aarav (left), Sangeetha, Santa, Aditi and Aditi, plus Leo the caboodle are celebrating the festival under the elms. 375386 Picture: GARY SISSONS
Electoral divide By Violet Li Residents are warning that Casey’s southern towns will be under-represented compared to northern suburbs, as part of proposed council electoral reforms. Casey Council’s electoral structure is currently under review by the State-appointed Electoral Representation Advisory Panel (ERAP), which held a public hearing on Tuesday 28 November. The Local Government Act 2020 stipulates all metropolitan city councils must have single-
councillor ward electoral structures. It also requires each ward must have an approximately equal number of voters per councillor. Casey Council – which has been governed by administrators rather than councillors since 2020 – currently sits on six wards with a total of 11 councillors. The next councillor elections are scheduled for 2024. In ERAP’s preliminary report, three models have been proposed for the number of councillors and wards. Model One adopts an 11-ward structure, us-
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ing major roads as boundaries. Model Two also uses an 11 single-councillor structure, but it employs suburb boundaries to delineate wards. Model Three has 12 single-councillor wards and applies mainly road and rail infrastructure as the dividing borders. More than 30 residents and groups made public submissions, which have now closed. More than 20 similar public submissions opted for Model Two, arguing that it would “best reflect communities of interest”. Many of
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them were nearly identical and submitted from the Greater Dandenong area. In Model Two, the northern part of Berwick is in a ward with the semi-rural suburbs Narre Warren North and Harkaway, while the southern part has its own ward. The submissions put emphasis on keeping Berwick intact, supporting the split of the suburb between the ‘old’ parts in the north and the newer estates in the south. They opposed the other two models where Berwick was divided into three wards. Continued page 4
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