Federation Council has hosted many varied engagement opportunities across the last few months and there are several opportunities still to come, to assist Council in gaining further community feedback prior to adopting the 23/24 Operational Plan and the 4 year Delivery Program, at the end of June.
This year Council, as a result of requests to increase engagement efforts, introduced additional sessions, including pre-budget development surveys and pop-up sessions, as well as the traditional public meetings now that the plans are on exhibition. Pop up, drop in sessions and stakeholder meetings are also underway, many of which have already occurred, to highlight to the community the chance to review the plans and make submissions should they wish.
Federation Council Mayor, Cr Pat Bourke expressed his appreciation to all residents and other stakeholders that have provided feedback in relation to Council's strategic documents to date.
"This year recognising not everyone has the time anymore to attend night time meetings, as reflected in the low turn out across the four nights, we introduced other ways to engage, and the Councillors and staff who have attended these sessions have been really pleased with the engagement," he said.
"So far our pop up sessions have been the most valuable engagement tool where we have spoken to many residents about what Council services they value, where they would like to see further investment in, or suggestions for improvements to our current service delivery. These have been great as they capture the voices of those who maybe wouldn't always attend the traditional night time public meeting sessions. The most common themes of feedback are - a focus on infrastructure and core services such as roads, questions about the special rate application in, how to increase our communication with residents, requests on the creation of further shared walking tracks to take into consideration accessibility and pedestrian safety, queries on the long term financial sustainability of Council, and what cost containment strategies and initiatives are underway."
Mayor Bourke said this next set of Council's draft plans continue to have a long-term outlook for the Federation Council area.
"Council's long term priority, and its contained in many actions in the Delivery Program and Operational Plan now out on exhibition is to continue to address key infrastructure challenges across the area," he said.
"We know these long term decisions such as the request to increase rates are never popular, but sometimes the popular decisions are not always in the interests of the longer term. We always have to balance the demands on our assets such as roads, against the capacity to pay for these services, as we also have to balance investment into many other areas and not just roads, recognising our rates come from many areas who all have different priorities. We know we have plenty of areas that require significant investment from years of underfunding, and we have plenty of strategic work still ahead of us. Council's in the past did not always have this longer term outlook, nor did they fund their depreciation. We have done plenty over the 7 years since Federation Council has been created, but there is always more to do."
Federation Council is one of 17 councils across NSW that have applied to (IPART) for a special variation to increase income from rates above the rate peg. If the rate increase is approved and applied by Council, the average residential rate increase for 23-24 is $2.63 per week, for businesses $4.66 per week and for farmland property owners $13.11 per week.
Mayor Bourke said Council remains very aware of the cost-of-living pressures in the LGA and that was a huge factor in its decision to take a staged approach of applying for an SRV that if successful could be implemented over a four-year period.
"Council will also receive a report in the near future, on pensioner subsidy options, to ensure we take into further consideration the impact our rate rise would have on our most financially vulnerable in our communities and to look at continued ways to best support these ratepayers," he said.
"These are tough decisions for anyone to make, as it's an ongoing balance of addressing the significant and urgent asset needs such as roads and drainage, versus ensuring Council is considerate of broader economic factors affecting our ratepayers. Our community for years has expressed their desire for our region to grow and prosper, and it needs to. And irrespective of any growth, Council's core services such as roads and other infrastructure need additional ongoing funding to get on top of the backlog caused by years of underfunding, and to bring maintenance levels up to responsible levels and of course this comes at a cost. As I have said many times at our engagement opportunities this year, we weren't the ones that created this backlog, but we are determined to be proactive and make the right decisions for the long term to fix it."
Mayor Bourke said he encourages the community to stay engaged and provide further input into the plans prior to the June Council meeting where they will be presented to Council for final adoption along with the submissions made, and Council's responses to those.
Council's key strategic documents will be on public exhibition from Wednesday, April 26 through to 5pm on Wednesday, May 31. Please see Council's website to view the plans and provide feedback.
