David Blore has put himself forward as a candidate for the 2024 Benalla Rural City Council elections.
Mr Blore says his candidacy has been a long time coming.
After a short stay in the town in the 1970s, he and his family found themselves back by the mid-’80s, having fallen in love with the Rose City.
He has since been involved with its community, schools and clubs, acting previously as president of the Benalla High School and P-12 College councils.
According to Mr Blore, this year felt like “the right time” to run.
“(Benalla has) most of the services we need, certainly for day-to-day stuff, and I see an opportunity to continue to build on that,” he said.
“The town has changed, and that’s one of the things I want to focus on.
“I want to revitalise Benalla.”
Mr Blore emphasised that revitalising Benalla would take more change, more consultation, more transparency and a focus on sustainability.
Wanting to see these things come to pass is why he decided to run for council.
“We see opportunities, but we need to re-engage people, and we need to work more closely with the community,” he said.
“We need to have more effective consultation and communication — conversations with (residents) are really essential.”
Mr Blore mentioned ensuring the viability of smaller hamlets in the municipality and supporting the rural sector were also important to him.
“Once we have that down, then we can get a new version of where Benalla has to go, and identify from there the things that need to go into our community plan, the projects that will meet people’s needs,” he said.
Mr Blore is a civil engineer with an MBA. He has experience in infrastructure, planning and project management and has worked with and for various councils in Victoria, interstate and overseas.
Locally, “one of his many hats” is president of the Benalla Sustainable Future Group.
Sustainability, in all areas, is a critical issue to him.
Mr Blore said sustainability concerned more than just the environment, but also people, places and the economy.
“Environmental sustainability pops up all the time, and that’s critically important,” he said.
“But if you don’t have the social sustainability — the systems in place to support the people and the economic sustainability — that can be a major problem.”
Mr Blore also mentioned roads as a priority.
“I’m a roads engineer, so I understand the issue is there, and I look forward to being able to work with council to make sure we’ve got the policies and practices in place, to help deliver what our community is asking for,” he said.