The Greater Bendigo Ratepayers Association has around 30 members and three individuals on the committee, headed by president Leighton Rawlings. 

Mr Rawlings, a former Bendigo councillor in the pre-amalgamation days, said the idea of a ratepayers group was floated four months ago because, “there was obviously issues that ratepayers wanted to have dealt with”.

Mr Rawlings declined to detail what issues the group would be focusing on, as it was in its formative stages, but suggested the purpose of the group was to hold councillors to account when acting in the interests of their wards and to improve participation and the democratic process in local government. 

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“We’d like to work with council wherever possible,” he said.

Treasurer Greg Penna and secretary Peter Vucinic form the remainder of the committee, which is yet to appoint a liaison officer.

The city’s last known ratepayer group was the Bendigo Ratepayers Association of Council Scrutineers, which operated from 2006 - 2008.

Its former spokesman, Martin Ruffell, told the Bendigo Advertiser last year he believed ratepayers were suffering from the lack of a collective body scrutinising the council.

The new group is a sub-branch of Ratepayers Victoria.

Six regional ratepayer groups have been established over the past three months, including in Bendigo, Sale and Shepparton, according to Ratepayers Victoria president Jack Davis.

“The purpose of these groups are to provide ratepayers with information as to the actions that councils are taking and to justify the actions they are taking,” he said.

Read more: Bendigo ratepayers association floated

Mr Davis said the statewide group is lobbying the state government to introduce an independent dispute committee, which can impartially resolve issues between councils and community groups.

Broadly speaking, Mr Davis said some Victorian councillors were “out of control” and “not operating for the benefit of ratepayers”. 

“There are some good ones but they’re just gobbled up by the bad ones,” he said.

The Greater Bendigo Ratepayers Association meets on the fourth Tuesday of each month at the Quarry Hill community hall.

Mayor Margaret O’Rourke welcomed the new group and said she was happy to meet with its members to discuss issues of interest.