WHEN the candidates for this Saturday’s MidCoast Council elections were announced, News Of The Area caught up with the team led by Tea Gardens local Len Roberts.

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Last week we were given the chance to catch up with the other Tea Gardens candidate running as an Independent, Malcolm Motum.

Mr Motum is now semi-retired after spending 34 years in the Australian Army as an aircraft engineer.

“I was a Duntroon graduate and did a science degree there,” Mr Motum told News Of The Area.”

The Motum family has been in Tea Gardens for four generations.

“The way the voting system is set up, it’s made it more difficult for a local person to say come vote for me.”

“It’s very difficult for a below the line candidate to do anything and if you look at things mathematically you wouldn’t stand, but winning is not the important thing, it’s putting yourself out there.

“I’m here to make sure we can tell the council when something needs being done in Tea Gardens, Hawks Nest, Pindimar, Bundabah and Bulahdelah.”

Mr Motum is also committed to upgrading our community services in the Myall.

“I think kids of today need to be kept active and I’d like to see more initiatives such as the PCYC in the area.’’

“I’d like to see our sporting facilities upgraded, we’ve got a swimming pool but it needs heating.”

“We’ve got Memorial Park in Witt Street and the oval in Hawks Nest, they’re good facilities but they need a small amount of investment to keep them up to standard.”

“We don’t need to let these go downhill while we dream about a sports precinct.”

By Margie TIERNEY