Jennifer Pittorino
Quarterly meetings been Hobsons Bay council and local trader groups will be held to issues and build relationships between all parties.
In its meeting on Tuesday, November 14, the council moved the motion to introduce the meeting with representatives of the Hobsons Bay trader associations, councillors and council’s senior leadership team.
This decision comes after a meeting took place on October 5, between councillors, council officers and trader group presidents who expressed that the relationship between traders and council needed to improve to achieve better outcomes for the sector.
According to the council, the traders believe a collective meeting of presidents and council representatives would allow council to gain a better understanding of the economic climate the sector is facing and go a long way to forming a partnership approach to resolve issues affecting traders.
Councillor Peter Hemphill said traders want a better relationship with council.
“This should provide better outcomes for the traders associations but also their memberships and council,’ he said. “As we’ve heard, things are pretty tough for traders at the moment.”
“I think this will benefit all, I would certainly like to see council supporting small businesses, making sure that we do everything we can to make them prosper because they are such a big employer in the municipality at the moment.”
Councillor Daria Kellander said in her first two years on council, traders participated in a monthly meeting called coffee with the mayor which were cancelled last year.
“Without these meetings the request to discuss items such as outdoor trading suffered,” she said.
“This disconnect and lack of communication needs to be resolved so we need meetings to continue.
“I’m happy to support this to bring back those meetings and make a commitment to continue having that two way discussion with council incorporating executives alongside our traders.”
