Highlights & Challenges of Four Years on Council

The following blog post is a combination of my June and August 2026 Mitcham Community News articles. At the time of writing the June article, the 6 month delay in the Local Government Elections had not been announced. As a result, these are no longer my final two articles for this term of Council.

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The Biggest Challenges and Frustrations of this Term

Being my second to last article for this term of Council, I thought I’d focus on some reflections from the past four years. Starting with the biggest challenges and frustrations here and finishing with highlights and wins in August!

Arguably my biggest frustration this term of Council has been the need to fund projects / resourcing that should have been funded years if not decades ago. There are numerous examples during this term of Council but two key ones would be the Mortlock Park upgrade (20 years in the making) and the additional Volunteer Coordinator (Council turned away volunteers for years due to the lack of proper resourcing).

The impacts of this have been significant. When you are funding / resourcing projects that should have occurred decades ago, you have limited funding / resources for projects needed now or for the future. In many situations, not funding projects at the time they were first required has not only cost ratepayers more in the long-term but also adversely impacted the community’s perception of Council.

My second biggest frustration is the significant difficulty of getting Council Member suggested projects funded in the budget – especially if Council staff are not supportive. This is a reoccurring theme each year. Projects put forward by Council staff always seem to get priority in the budget. For example, our draft budget this year contains maybe one project that was specifically put forward by a Councillor. This isn’t to say that Councillors aren’t supportive of staff projects in the budget each year, but getting your own suggested project over the line, even if it isn’t ward specific, is disappointingly difficult.

There have been some major challenges this term of Council. Potentially the most visible to residents has been resourcing difficulties for our Traffic and Transport Team. There is a massive shortage of traffic engineers state-wide, with the Torrens to Darlington project or private consulting taking sizeable numbers of them away from councils into higher-paying jobs. This has impacted Council’s to recruit and retain traffic staff. These resourcing difficulties and high workload have meant projects or resident requests in this area take a long time, such as the Bike Plan (three years in waiting)!

Finally, Council has been undergoing an important and challenging transformation over the past four years, moving from an organisation that was designed to deliver “business as usual” to one that can deliver “business as usual plus”. The “plus” being significant investments / upgrades in facilities and places across Mitcham and substantially increased project complexity. This need for change has come from two main drivers:

1. Many key assets across Council have been reaching the end of their useful life.

2. State and Federal governments’ election commitments (something which historically never happened) provided Council financial assistance to complete these projects.

While impacting every team, this change saw a total restructure of engineering and horticulture with the intent of streamlining service delivery and increasing operational efficiencies, something which will pay dividends for years to come.

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The Biggest Highlights and Progress from this Term

As June was meant to be my second to last column for this term of Council, I focused on some of the biggest challenges and frustrations of this term of Council. The intent was to compliment that with this final column highlighting the progress and highlights of the past four years. With the State Government delaying the election, this will not be my final article after all, but I still wanted to complete the picture.

To say it has been an incredibly productive four years, would be an understatement. Many topics / areas I wanted to advocate for have been addressed this term or are currently in progress. There is still much work to be done, but here are some of the key areas:

• Council has fully funded asset renewal, maintained a solid financial footing and improved service levels in areas such like stormwater upgrades & doubling street sweeping capacity

  
  

  That may sound straightforward, but it has required discipline. Council has not deferred asset renewals or relied on financial shortcuts. In its independent review, ESCOSA gave Mitcham a “Sustainable” rating—an outcome achieved by only a small number of councils.

  
  

• Blackwood Centre Investments and Renewal – Opening of Tiwu Kumangka and Young Street Upgrade

  The opening of the new Blackwood Library & Community Centre at Tiwu has been a tremendous success, complimented by the Young Street Upgrade and funding for the first time ever to active our community centre. Upgrades to the Waite Street reserve are fully funded and expected to start early next year.

  
  

• Expanding our volunteer capacity through hiring of a new co-ordinator

  This investment has allowed more involvement from our community than ever, from maintaining laneways in Hawthorndene through to the new verge greening program.

  
  

• A successful transition in the aged-care space

  Council’s role in aged care significantly changed over the past four years. Staff successfully transitioned residents into the new system early enough to see all clients supported + having a choice of provider. This provided the opportunity to expand the community bus service which now sees over 3,000 trips per year.

  
  

• Urban Forest Investments

  • New tree maintenance crew + increased arborist resourcing to reduce maintenance requests & improve the long-term health of our trees

  • Introduction of a Tree Assistance Fund to help owners maintain large trees

  • New Tree Strategy (coming shortly) to set a new standard for tree management

    
    

• Footpaths, pedestrian linkages / active transport Investments

  • New footpaths are the hardest item to get through the budget!

  • Funding provided twice for new footpaths

  • Pedestrian improvements in Blackwood & Hawthorndene, such as the upcoming pedestrian islands on Hawthorndene Drive

  • Bike Strategy Consultation is finally underway

    
    

• Installation of a Public Toilet at Suffolk Reserve

  • Requested by the community for over a decade, it is fantastic to see this new facility operational

    
    

• Masterplans for Hawthorndene & Glenalta Reserves + Blackwood

  • Really important work is underway to upgrade & renewal the amazing green belt from Sherwood Reserve in Glenalta to Apex Park in Hawthorndene

  • Two key studies are underway in central Blackwood to assess traffic, parking, pedestrian movement and future streetscape upgrades / greening strategy

    
    

• Land Management & Bushfire Mitigation Investments

  • With the assistance of Federal Government Funding + Council contributions, woody weed removal has been accelerated and critical fire tracks upgrades completed

  • Funding for Land Management grants has also been doubled

    
    

• Grevillea Way

  • Investigations into surface options for Grevillea Way

  • Improved surface condition with new bitumen + erosion controls

    
    

• Green Energy for Council

  • A massive solar / battery rollout across Mitcham to reduce energy costs & emissions, saving the environment and money

    
    

• Support for local groups such as the Blackwood Environment Centre & Jessie Brown Kindy

  
  

• A lease agreement with the Blackwood Recreation Centre

  • The incredibly long and complex negotiations over a lease for the Blackwood Rec Centre are just about completed!

Without a doubt though, getting this much achieved wouldn’t be possible without a Council Chamber that wanted to get things done and the dedicated staff (often being pushed to capacity) delivering. Council elections are like a box of chocolates – you never know what you are going to get. While we certainly do not agree on everything and often have very different views, I genuinely believe we have been lucky to have such a cohesive, collaborative and constructive chamber. Everyone elected has a genuine desire to make Mitcham a better place and focus on delivering. At the end of the day, we can still have dinner together and have productive relationships with staff which unfortunately is more than can be said for many other local Councils.

Being on Council to make a difference has been something I have wanted to do for a very long time. While there is still much more to do, I feel this has been a productive, challenging and rewarding four years at the City of Mitcham and I hope that residents are starting to notice the improvements and impacts of the decisions that have been made during this term of Council.