Former Hepburn Shire mayor Rod May is the Greens candidate for Ripon at the next state election.
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Mr May said after spending time fixing his farm after "a little neglect while in council" and keeping his head out of the public eye, he then started thinking of many political things which resonated with him.
Through his daughter Stephanie Hodgins-May, who is the Greens candidate for Ballarat, Mr May met Victorian Greens leader Greg Barber. "I thought it was about time I decided to jump back into the public domain," he said. "After having worked for local government I thought it was important to have a vision."
Part of that vision is better transportation for the people of Hepburn Shire, particularly in Daylesford.
"Daylesford has been expanding for years and there have been a lot of issues with transport," Mr May said.
Mr May said the Greens were interested in services that supported country Victorians' everyday needs.
"While the state government is focused on building a toll tunnel in the city, increasing bus services in the country will allow students particularly TAFE students, those working in Ballarat or other larger centres, or even anyone having to attend medical appointments to get to nearby towns without needing to move out of home or buy a car."
Mr May said V/Line coaches were the only form of public transport for most of Victoria's small towns, yet many routes ran so infrequently that they could not get people where they needed to go when they needed to get there.
"Regional Victoria is a great place to live with more and more Victorians appreciating life in the beautiful environment of our countryside and the lifestyle benefits of living in smaller regional towns," Mr May said.
"Daily services seven days of the week should be the minimum. Major regional centres need frequent connections between them. All services should be boosted so that they run to a consistent daily pattern such as one, two, three or four times per day."
Places like Hepburn Shire were missing out on tourism opportunities because of irregular bus services, Mr May said. "Its all about a vision for regional Victoria."