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Council election 2024 | Sam Spinks

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Council candidate for Poplar Ward Sam Spinks. Photo by Megan Fisher

Deputy Mayor Sam Spinks is standing again for council in the upcoming elections.

As a current resident of south Shepparton, she will be running for Poplar Ward.

She moved to the region over a decade ago; however, about 20 years ago, she did work experience in the area.

“I moved up here with my kids, about 11 years ago,” Miss Spinks said.

“I’d always loved this area, always had family here.

“We’d come up here to go camping every couple of months, and I was living in the burbs of Melbourne and I thought I just wanted my kids to grow up in the country and this was always going to be it.”

She said she was running again as she had unfinished business from her first four-year term.

“I almost feel like I had a responsibility to run again,” she said.

“The first term is such a learning curve, and you really don’t know what you’re stepping into, in a really great way because you bring such fresh energy to it.

“I think I have more good work to do.”

She hopes to be an advocate for current transport options and the town’s future, as well as giving voice to those that aren’t “at the table”.

“I’ve been doing a lot of work around active transport, so walking and cycling paths and public transport advocacy, and I’m really passionate about our housing crisis and finding affordable and social housing outcomes,” she said.

“We're going to grow in a crazy way over the next bunch of years, and we need to be thinking about ... what it’s going to be like if we have another 10,000 cars on our roads.

She said she had stayed in the region due to its open space and community mind.

“I love Greater Shepparton,” she said.

“We have everything you could need, and it is beautiful, and the people are beautiful, and the natural environment is incredible and everything that you can need is within a 15-minute drive.”