Augusta Margaret River Shire council candidates:
AFTER helping care for his elderly relatives, council hopeful Brian Middleton hopes to improve aged-care facilities in the region if elected next month.
From small changes, such as improving beach access for those in wheel chairs to larger issues, such as building retirement homes in the region, Mr Middleton is eager to help people grow old gracefully and comfortably.
"I think we need better facilities for the frail aged," he said.
"It's quite distressing when you realise how inadequate the facilities are.
"We have a large cohort of older aged people in the area. There's a shortage of retirement options. If you want to live in a retirement village you have to go to Busselton."
Mr Middleton comes with some experience in public office having served as a councillor between 2005-2011.
During his four-year hiatus he has built up his accountancy business and developed a green thumb, being appointed to the WA Conservation Commission where he reviewed management plans for the state's national parks and forests.
Conservation of the shire's natural reserves is something he wants to see as it could boost the tourism trade.
"We must be mindful of our natural environment," he said.
"We can have tourism conservation they are complimentary and not mutually exclusive."
Another area in which he wants to see improvement is in attracting businesses to host conferences in Margaret River and he wants to see the Cultural Centre precinct completed to enable this.
"We want to make it easy for organisations and businesses to stage conferences here," he said.
"People would host conferences here if we had a working convention centre.
"The facility we have is inadequate for staging conferences and there is a huge market in conferencing.
"I'm sure we can come up with a creative solution to get the cultural centre running."
Mr Middleton said his four-year break has allowed him to rekindle his passion for local government and he is eager to again represent the shire's ratepayers.
