By Tate Papworth
Brimbank’s new mayor knows the challenges that lie ahead and is eager to tackle them head on.
Cr Lucinda Congreve was voted in as Brimbank mayor during a special council meeting last Wednesday night.
“I’m completely overwhelmed to be unanimously voted in to be mayor and given the opportunity to represent Brimbank,” she said.
“Last year, I was eight months pregnant at this meeting and here we are today.
“We talk a lot about desire for equal opportunity and equality as a council and I think that allowing and supporting a young mum with two children to be mayor is living those values.”
Cr Congreve said she already had a list of priorities.
“Looking forward to the challenges, one of the first things I see as mayor to get stuck into is to continue with the advocacy work, particularly around multi-generational project the St Albans leisure centre,” she said.
“I think we were all a bit surprised we weren’t successful in our Better Pools Funding.
“We can’t do this project on our own. We have the community behind us and we need to get out there, start talking to these politicians and get everybody on the bus with us. And we need some cash.”
But the leisure centre isn’t the only thing on the new mayor’s mind as the council moves towards the last full-year budget of its term.
“We have some really strong and tough decisions we need to make as part of that budget,” she said. “Last year, we made unprecedented investment in our sporting infrastructure, but it’s not even going to scratch the surface of what we need to do. We’ve just seen our community infrastructure plan, which has huge gaps – we need libraries, halls, kindergartens.
“There’s lots we need to do and we need to find money to do those things.”
Cr Congreve highlighted the airport rail link as another high priority.
Former mayor Sam David, who was a member of the council sacked by the state government in 2009, was elected as deputy mayor.
