Resident's calls for a disability group to be included in Dubbo Regional Council's community committees has been heard.
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Councillor Pam Wells said she has heard the community and wants to try and accommodate for them.
"In terms of the committees that have been on the list at the moment, there has been some interest and conversation from the community about how a disability group has not appeared on the list," she said.
"I would recommend we reconsider."
Cr Wells was asked if she wanted to make an amendment to the motion but she declined, with the indication she would bring it to council's ordinary July meeting.
One resident, Dale Albus Elliott, said by not having a disability inclusion committee council had proven to the community that "they don't care about disabilities".
"Council should reinstate the committee, because the disability community feel like we have lost our voice to council. We feel excluded," he said.
Cr Shibli Chowdhury said it was good to see a lot of people putting their names forward for the other committees.
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"It would be great to see the committee's working with council and making decisions, but I agree with councillor Wells, that we need to have a disability committee because," he said.
"I've had phone calls with community members about this particular committee and there is a huge need for it."
In 2021, the Dubbo Regional Council had made it a priority to make Dubbo the "most disability-friendly city in Australia".
A Disability Inclusion Action Plan was created with goals to be achieved between 2022 and 2025. These include reviewing high traffic areas to improve pedestrian access and ensuring all pedestrian accessibility aids like tactile sensors were updated.
"We make sure that we've got that Disability Inclusion Action Plan in our mind, but you don't need a separate disability access committee to make sure to make sure the plan is being adhered to," Mayor Mathew Dickerson said.
Following the recent expression of interest process for council's community committees and working parties, the terms of reference were amended to reflect community representative numbers, with the number of community representatives listed under positions to be determined by the selection panel at the time of assessment.
The committees that were included were:
- Aquatics Working Party
- Climate Change and Resilience Committee
- Cultural and Tourism Facility Committee
- Dubbo Regional Livestock Markets Advisory Committee
- Multicultural Advisory Committee
- Public Spaces Tree Committee
- Reconciliation Action Plan Working Party
- Sister City Committee
- Social Justice Advisory Committee
- SPARC Committee
- Villages Committee
- Wellington Town Committee
- Wiradjuri Tourism Project Committee
- Youth Council
Deputy mayor Richard Ivey said there was the ability to expand the committee's in line with the interest they received through community nominations.
"It seems silly to go out to community and ask for their input in an area of operation which affects them and then refuse them entry to the committee where they've put their name forward," he said.
"Community based committees dealing with the community issues should be expanded to those who want to go on the committee.
"I presume the disability committee would fall under that same category."
Approved members of certain committees will be notified of the outcome of their expression of interest prior to the July ordinary council meeting to allow for appropriate notification to be given of meetings schedule for early August.
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