COUNCILLOR candidate Sherry Leach has promised to donate $10,000 of her annual wage to community groups if she’s elected in March.

The Warwick-based candidate’s said she would give charitable donations to sporting clubs, community groups and events.

“These donations will be totally transparent and accountable, funded directly from my own Councillor’s salary,” she said.

“The donations will be made on a monthly basis to organisations that I believe will benefit from financial assistance, at my personal discretion.”

Describing herself as an “activist”, Mrs Leach said she wasn’t afraid of hard work, long hours or personal sacrifice.

“I will leave no stone unturned, no idea unexplored, no opportunity missed, in my ambition to be one of a successful team, to turn our fortunes around,” she said.

“I am about rolling up my sleeves to make the decisions and do whatever is necessary to serve our community honestly and openly.”

Mrs Leach moved to Warwick in the late 1990s with her husband David to raise their large family.

“We wanted to give them a down-to-earth environment on the land and a freedom that children cannot enjoy in big city environments,” she said.

“Everything we dreamed for our children was achieved here – a fine education, life long friendships, and a safe, happy upbringing in a caring community.

“So now they have all grown and fled the ‘coop’, it is my time now to give back something to this community that helped me to raise my children successfully.”

For the past 11 years she’s managed her business Homeview magazine.

Prior to that she worked as a financial planner and travelled the world extensively.

“In my earlier career, pre children, I was a loans officer with one of the largest Credit Unions in Australia and then a licensed Financial Planner, working for various companies in Sydney, and ultimately held a directorship for a successful Sydney based business,” she said.

“I have travelled the world extensively in my lifetime – and have lived in many circumstances, from remote aboriginal missions to ritzy London. But this region is the only place I have been able to call ‘home’ and my vision for this region knows no bounds.”

The councillor candidate said she believe in environmentally responsible development, clean food and water, kindness to people and animals, and sustainable living.

She declared she didn’t believe the region needed a nuclear waste dump or CSG drilling to “ruin our aquifers.”

“I do believe that we need more businesses to come here; we should welcome large tourism developments and we need to be an RV friendly region,” she said.

“We also need our many small businesses and we should do everything in our power to help them and keep them. We also must provide our young people with hope and the promise of a future where they don’t have to leave here to make a life.

“Our council has to stop spending huge amounts of our money on lawsuits that ultimately provide little benefit, if any to our community.”

Mrs Leach said the community faced some very difficult problems and the region needed a group of “dedicated, strong individuals to form a cohesive team” to “clean up the mess and get the ball rolling”.

“To achieve this end, difficult decisions have to be made and acted upon. Our financial position is not tenable – we all know that, but we have to find and implement the way forward, without adding heavy burdens to rate payers with painful hikes,” she said.

“I am about rolling up my sleeves to make the decisions and do whatever is necessary to serve our community honestly and openly.

“Those who do know me would agree that one of my favourite sayings is; ‘where there is a will, there is a way.’”