Cr Cropley is fed up with class divides and says everyone is entitled to an opinion – no matter whether they’ve lived in the shire for five minutes or fifty-five years.

Cr Cropley said some people, including herself, were being attacked and their views dismissed because they were being labelled as “blow-ins” and not “locals”.

“I’ve been really concerned in the past few months about a whole range of behaviours I’ve seen in this community,” she said.

“Some behaviour at the information sessions for the pool was just appalling.

“It’s not OK for people to be screaming in my face and it’s certainly not OK for them to be doing that to my staff.

“To have people shout in my face that I’m a ‘latte-sucking blow-in’ and that I don’t belong here is not appropriate.”

Cr Cropley vented her frustrations in today’s mayoral column in the Bendigo Advertiser’s Community Focus. “I think it is time I expressed some views about the ‘blow-ins’ debate that seems to underpin the broader debates in the community,” she wrote.

“It has been a big month of issues that this council and community needs to deal with.

“I don’t know what makes a ‘blow-in’, but in some ways, that is not the issue.

“Whether people have lived here all their lives, were born here and have returned, or have chosen to come and live in our municipality, all have an equal right to be involved in community affairs.”

Cr Cropley has attracted some criticism from the community recently because of an ongoing battle between the Castlemaine Country Women’s Association and the Mount Alexander Shire.

The shire wanted to charge the group room rental, but the women said they shouldn’t have to pay up because they gave their old CWA rooms to council years ago.

“In relation to the CWA, I’ve referred some of the threatening and abusive emails and calls to the police,” she said.