Wally Sanford crossed the electoral finish line ahead of six others in the Cromwell Community Board (CCB) by-election, but the low number of votes is not the ringing endorsement of the democratic process one community leader hoped for.

Fewer than 30 per cent of eligible voters in the Cromwell ward placed a tick for their favoured candidate in the by-election.

That wasn’t not good enough for CCB Chair Anna Harrison. 

While congratulating Wally on his victory, Anna is genuinely concerned about the lack of community engagement with local government. 

“People get out and vote at a general election when often it’s the people on the ground in the community doing the day-to-day stuff that makes a real difference to everyday lives.

“But getting people engaged in that all-important everyday stuff is hard,” she said. 

The issue has left her struggling to find an answer, especially when there are so many critical decisions to be made as Cromwell evolves and grows over the coming years.

Anna sees the younger generation as key to future engagement in the community, but making local government issues exciting and relevant to them presents a challenge.

“Our young people are highly political about what they think will impact their future. Unfortunately, they don’t necessarily see things like roads and rubbish collection as those things.

“We want more people to be interested in conversations that are happening in our community, in the rebuilding of the hall and in all the other vital decisions being made right now.

“We’re clearly not getting the message out to as wide a demographic as we need to, but there’s no easy solution,” she said.