North Ringwood Community House is located at 120 Oban Road, located at the rear of the Holy Spirit Primary School in Ringwood North.  The North Ringwood Community House is a Registered Training Organisation (RTO) and offers a range of accredited courses, as well as adult education and social groups.

As a community based organisation, North Ringwood Community House is overseen by a voluntary committee of management and this afternoon the organisation held its annual meeting to elect committee members for the next twelve months.  While I was previously a committee member of the North Ringwood Community House, I have chosen not to seek re-nomination and have resigned from the committee.

While I enjoyed being a committee member of North Ringwood Community House, changes to the Local Government Act, prevent a Councillor from formally discussing matters involving an organisation, where they are part of its decision making body.  As a consequence, this has meant that I was unable to discuss the community house within formal council meetings.

Given these changes to the Local Government Act, I believe I will be better able to advocate for the community house if I was no longer a member of the committee of management.

During the past twelve months North Ringwood Community House prepared a new business plan and completed the feasibility study exploring potential sites for the organisation and its services.  The study identified Norwood Reserve along Warrandyte Road as the preferred site and Council will now able undertaking an assessment of this location, including consultation with existing users and exploring the traffic implications.

This assessment is expected to be completed by July, when Council will discuss the findings with the North Ringwood Community House.