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Committee 4 Rochester used its first meeting Tuesday last week to discuss the issue of whether the meetings should be closed or opened up to the broader community.

Chairman Peter Anderson said he did not treat the meeting as a closed meeting as it included representatives for most community committees.

‘‘If we need to have anyone else here for any other organisation in Rochester we need to know about it,’’ he said.

Rochester Planning Group representative Val Gledhill said she had no qualms with the quality of the board members but if it was going to be a community meeting it should be open to the community.

‘‘There are people in the community that have good skills and might have something to offer us,’’ she said.

‘‘We haven’t advertised it (the meeting), we’ve just been invited to come along.’’

Rochester and Elmore District Health Service representative Matt Sharp said he feared if the committee was opened up more broadly it might get to the point where it could not make any decisions and progress.

Mr Anderson backed Mr Sharp’s comments by saying he wouldn’t want 40 people at the meeting.

Eleven members attended and four apologies were received at the start of the meeting.

Rochester Recreation Reserve representative Alan Darbyshire said the group needed to look at what was good for the town in the future and the community groups were well represented at the meeting.

Also at the meeting, Campaspe Shire flood recovery officer Jordan Tamblyn said the community consultation period would be advertised to district residents.

He said any member of the community could contact a board member even outside of the community consultation periods to get their point across to the board.

Each representative updated the group about where they stood in terms of economic recovery.

Community bank representative Tracie Kyne said the bank still had a substantial amount of money left in the Rochester Flood Account that had to be given out by February.

‘‘We need to find some things to put it towards,’’ she said.

She said the money had to go towards something that had been affected by flood in some way and could not go to individuals.

Mrs Gledhill spoke about development she would like to see at the skate park.

Community House representative spoke about the move to the Rochester Community Hub in December.

Mr Darbyshire said the $2.2 million developments at the Rochester Recreation Reserve would start soon and should be completed by September.

He said much of the construction was taking place off-site.