Capital projects secure $21 million from council. More than $21 million has been committed to a range of capital projects following the Clarence Valley Council’s budget meeting on Tuesday night.Some of the big expenditure items include: $2 million to rationalise council depots in Grafton (five depots into one); $1 million for the renovation of council’s Prince Street administration office so itcan house all Grafton-based indoor staff; $960,000 for the upgrade of Wherrett Park, Maclean; $1 million for the upgrade of McLachlan Park, Maclean; $220,000 for the upgrade of the South Grafton pool; $300,000 for the Maclean levee rehabilitation; $561,000 for urban road rehabilitation and reseals; $1.1 million for rural road rehabilitation and reseals; $1.074 million for Armidale Road upgrade works; $400,000 for Wooli Road upgrade works; $290,000 to finalise the sealing of Old Ferry Road, Ashby; $200,000 for Yamba Street/Coldstream Street Yamba intersection upgrade (stage1); $50,000 for the upgrade/painting of buildings at Maclean Showground (stage 1); $38,000 for the upgrade of the Maclean Library building; $37,000 for Grafton Pool upgrade works, and; $35,000 for Maclean Pool upgrade works.Mayor, Richie Williamson, said it was a budget for the times and welcomed the ongoing commitment of councillors to fiscal responsibility.“We’ve had to tighten our belts, but there’s some exciting works planned that will make life a little better for many of our ratepayers,” he said.“It’s just a pity we didn’t have the funds to meet more of the demands.”Council general manager, Scott Greensill, said all were important projects, but placed a substantial strain on the council’s finances. “We are looking at a general fund budget deficit $603,281,” he said.“This is not disastrous, but it is something we understand cannot continue over the long term.“There are no new general fund loan borrowings proposed for 2014/15.”Mr Greensill said the council’s budget position had not been helped by a decision of the Federal Government to pause increases in financial assistance grants paid to councils.“We estimate that will cost around $255,000 this year,” he said.“Based on an estimate of the consumer price index running at 2.5% a year from 2014/15 to 2017/18, the impact on council of the Federal Government pausing the CPI indexation on the financial assistance grants to local government will be about $1.063 million in reduced grant income over the next four years.”He said the council had made substantial savings over the past two years, but there was a limit to the amount of cost cutting that could be done.“We need to live within our means,” he said.“We can’t just consider short term costs. We need to look at the decisions we make today and how they impact on future costs.“It is not enough to maintain the community’s current assets - we need to be able to fund asset replacement as well.“With our current and projected income, we cannot afford to continue to deliver current levels of service or maintain the current $1.8 billion worth of infrastructure assets at what is deemed to be an acceptable standard.“We have a substantial backlog of infrastructure projects and that list will continue to grow unless our financial position improves,” he said.“It’s something we’d like to avoid, but we may need to consider a special rate variation.“Councils across the State, particularly those in rural areas who can’t supplement their income through things like parking fees, are facing increasing cost pressures.“Thirty two of the State’s 152 councils applied for special rate variations for 2014/15 and 28 of those were approved in full, with three of the remaining four having lower level increases approved.“There are some big choices coming and we will prepare a report to go to the October meeting of council that will give a clear picture of our financial position and our options.”
Posted on: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 05:30:51 +0000
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