One of the biggest crowds ever turned up for the Meet the Councillor Candidates evening at the Forbes Services Memorial Club on Tuesday night when more than 180 people attended. The evening was organised by the Forbes Business Chamber with Margaret Duggan acting as facilitator.
All 17 candidates were present and each person had two and a half minutes to present a case for why they should be elected as a councilor at the Local Government Elections on 10th September. Eight of the candidates are current councilors standing for re-election. The candidates talked passionately about a variety of issues they would focus on with tourism, economic development, housing, rural and water issues the main ones.
There were several promises to work towards a more transparent council that would listen to residents and involve them more in decision making, working on further improvement of medical services, being a voice for the youth, helping people, better internet services, keeping government services in town and long-term employment opportunities for young people.
During question time there was a lot of discussion about the importance of attracting smaller businesses to town, selling Forbes as a tree change destination and the need for more local education opportunities.