At an Extraordinary Council Meeting on Monday 30 January, Armidale Regional Council (ARC) adopted the revised suite of documents which form part of the application to the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal of NSW (IPART) for a Special Rate Variation (SRV) of around 50% over three years, which would take effect from 2023-24. The revised documents were on Public Exhibition from 16 December 2022 to 20 January 2023, with 29 formal submissions received.
Mayor of Armidale Regional Council, Sam Coupland thanked the community for their feedback on the revised documents and explained the next steps for Council's application for the SRV.
"We thank the community for their feedback following the public exhibition. Now that Council has adopted the amended documents at the Extraordinary meeting, our next step is to submit our application to IPART by 3 February," said Mayor Coupland.
"We are confident in the decision we have made and know this will make a big difference to our region in the future. This is part of our jobs and growth strategy, to change the fortunes of our region and get on top of the backlog in the maintenance of important community infrastructure," said Mayor Coupland.
The revised documents were the Amended Delivery Program 2022-2026, the Amended Resourcing Strategy 2022-2026, including the updated Long-Term Financial Plan. These documents were updated to include;
- Additional information gathered through the SRV community engagement process
- The staged removal of some Council charges identified during the community consultation process as a method of financially assisting ratepayers through the rate increase should the SRV application be successful and;
- Additional financial modelling and information from the Capacity to Pay Report to facilitate Council's intention to apply to the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal of NSW (IPART) for a SRV.
The suite of Asset Management Plans, the Strategic Asset Management Plan and the Asset Management Maturity Report were also placed on Public Exhibition and changes made as considered appropriate.
The suite of Asset Management Plans, the Strategic Asset Management Plan and the Asset Management Maturity Report were also placed on Public Exhibition and changes made as considered appropriate.
