And with youth comes a fresh perspective, an enthusiasm to get things done in a way the decades can diminish.

One Albury councillor reckons we've got far too much of one and nowhere near enough of the other.

Murray King says it's time that some of the relatively old fogeys stepped aside to let younger generations take their place, to lessen the risk of a one-dimensional staleness setting in.

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Cr King wants the council to be more representative of the community, with a time limit on how long you can stay around.

Get in, work hard, move on.

Of the current batch just one is under 55, he says, and three - councillors David Thurley, Henk van de Ven and Graham Docksey- are over 70.

Why, for example, should the young be called on for their views only with the aim of incorporating those into debates presided over by the city's older generations?

Why shouldn't they actually be front and centre in those debates and deliberations, as councillors?

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While there was a degree of knee-jerk defensiveness in the response of the over-70 trio to Cr King's points, there was also a reasonable serving of common sense.

Cr Thurley, for example, was spot-on when he argued age was a mindset, where someone who had already retired could easily be a more innovative thinker than someone decades younger.

We have seen plenty of examples of councillors continuing to contribute after many years on the job, such as with Patricia Gould and the late John Roach.

Perhaps the more crucial element of the debate is being to create an environment where younger generations feel that putting their hand up to run for council is actually a worthwhile endeavour.

And for many, the pressures of balancing family life with work, with trying in those younger years to simply forge-out a career, means running for council isn't feasible.

Clearing such pathways, rather than simply throwing older councillors on to the scrapheap, is a far better approach.