Meetings will be held in the Whitsundays in north Queensland to discuss whether the region’s water supply should be fluoridated.

Representatives from Queensland Health will attend the public meetings, which will be held in Proserpine and Bowen in the next fortnight.

Earlier this year, the State Government gave councils the power to stop fluoridation.

Whitsundays’ Mayor Jenny Whitney says the meetings will help council decide whether to fluoridate local water.

“Oh definitely, we will be listening to the community as well, we’ll be listening to the Government’s direction, we’ll also be listening to the speakers who will be attending and more importantly we’ll be speaking and listening to the community,” she said.

Councillor Whitney says much of the correspondence the council has received on the issue has been from people outside the region.

“I think there will be people that will try and put forward their own views but at the end of the day what we want is our community that lives here and drinks the water to be informed, so that we can listen to where they want us to go,” she said.

“We want them to know as much as they should know to make an informed decision.”