IF he is elected to Orange City Council, Kevin Duffy says he will vote on issues according to his conscience and not vote on a party line.
“I have political persuasions and people know that, but I’m prepared to say that when it comes to issues I will do what is best for Orange,” he said.
Mr Duffy, who has shifted his allegiance to Orange after formerly serving on Cabonne Council as a councillor and mayor, says he has been driven to stand by the disparity that exists for ratepayers in different parts of Cabonne, particularly the eastern sector.
Mr Duffy believes ratepayers are interested in the basics such as rates, roads and water.
However, he says the city has to look at new ways of maintaining its roads.
“There is no way roads should be built or fixed during winter, that’s where your problems start,” he said.
Mr Duffy says he would like to see Orange take its lead from other councils such as Tumut, which have two separate corporate operations teams to manage roads.
“One is for building and the other is for the work which has to be carried out in a hurry to fix roads,” he said.
“I think the system would work well here and help with these issues we have with our roads.”
Mr Duffy conceded during his time at Cabonne he was involved with a council that was constantly battling criticism of its roads.
“But I honestly think we did the best we could at the time, considering the funding model used,” he said.
Mr Duffy is committed to the pipeline concept to secure the city’s water supply, but wants to ensure the plan will work in 50 years time.
“I think that’s been one of the problems all along, that there hasn’t been enough forward planning for this city considering population growth,” he said.
“The thing is, it is the best option at this time in terms of costing.”
The first-time Orange council candidate says, as a regular user of the city’s streets and car parks, one of the first things he would like to do is look at funding that has been allocated to car parks and fix the traffic grid issues.
“I just want to have a look at the budgets for that and one of the other things I would do is to have a good look over how we have allocated money to fix our roads and for building roads,” he said.
“When it comes to making any decision when you’re on council its about good governance, not being popular.
“For example, when the speed limit was lowered on the Cargo Road, no one liked the idea but it has cut deaths on that road by half,” he said.
janice.harris
@ruralpress.com