Manningham Council is calling for ward name suggestions before Thursday 21 May as it gets set to move to a new nine ward structure before this year’s Council elections.

The Victorian Government announced late last month that Manningham will move from three to nine wards, with a single councillor set to represent each ward.

Council is calling for name suggestions after being advised by the Minister for Local Government this week that it has just two and a half weeks to provide names for the newly created wards.

Residents, businesses, community groups and more are invited to make suggestions and share their name ideas for the wards, which are currently being referred to as Wards A through to I by the Victorian Government.

Manningham Mayor, Cr Paul McLeish, said that while the changes to the wards have been mandated by Adem Somyurek, Minister of Local Government, Council is using the short window available to reach out to the community so that at least the names of the nine new wards reflect the local community and area they represent.

“Our existing ward boundaries have been changed by the Victorian Government despite the Electoral Representation Review, conducted last year by the Victorian Electoral Commission, recommendation to stay with the current three multi councillor wards.

“The Minister has now given us just a couple of weeks to provide a list of ward names for Manningham. We want everyone in our community to share their suggestions into what our wards should be named.

“I encourage everyone to think about what represents your local area in Manningham and make a name suggestion before 21 May.

“We will then put a recommendation to the Minister for names of the nine new Manningham wards, which will come into effect at the next Council elections in October this year,” Cr McLeish said.

To share your ideas and view a map of the new ward boundaries, visit yoursay.manningham.vic.gov.au/wards

Submissions will close at 12noon on Thursday 21 May 2020.