Improving the day-to-day lives of residents and maintaining what our community loves about living in the Green Wedge Shire is the focus of .
Waste and recycling; roads, footpaths and traffic management; as well as our green and leafy environment, parks and open space are the top three expenditure areas in the Budget, reflecting what our community has told us is most important to them during our annual community surveys.
Other priorities of the Budget, which was endorsed at the 28 May Council Meeting, include our libraries, sports and leisure facilities, family and children’s services such as our maternal and child health nursing team, arts, and education through our Living & Learning Centres and Edendale Community Environment Farm.
There’s also funding for festivals and events, grants to support community projects and initiatives, services and programs for youth and school crossing supervisors.
A key focus of the Budget will be closing out the final actions of the four-year Council Plan, which provides the strategic direction for all Council’s work and was developed in consultation with the community in 2020.
Mayor Ben Ramcharan said it was a responsible Budget, with no new borrowings and the general rate increase kept within the State Government cap of 2.75 per cent.
He said the focus was on maintaining assets and services for the community while adhering to Council’s key strategic priorities.
“The budget presents a strategic plan in a difficult economic landscape,” Cr Ramcharan said.
“Funding has been allocated to areas that are vital to Council’s day-to-day service delivery and reflective of what our community has told us is important to them.
“We recognise that rates are high in comparison with some other councils and we do everything in our power to keep them as low as we can.
“However because we’re a low-growth municipality with development restricted by the unique environment of the Green Wedge, we have a small number of rateable properties supporting the infrastructure needs of the large physical area of our shire,” Cr Ramcharan said.
Major projects in the Budget include the Ryans Reserve redevelopment in Diamond Creek, and the Changing Places and public toilet facility in Alistair Knox Park, Eltham.
There will be an increase of 6.81 percent to the domestic waste service standard charge. This is largely driven by Council’s rehabilitation of the former Kangaroo Ground landfill site, which a statutory requirement of the Environment Protection Authority (EPA), as well the increase in costs to dispose of recycling and waste.
A new fee structure will be introduced at the Recycling Centre in Plenty from July, which will see waste disposal charges increase for non-Nillumbik residents. Fees are not changing for Nillumbik residents or ratepayers. More than 20 per cent of visitors to the centre are non-residents and the change will bring the fee structure in line with other councils.
Budget highlights at a glance
The annual Budget aligns with the four strategic objectives of the Council Plan for this term of Council. This ensures that financial resources are allocated to support initiatives to help Council achieve these overarching goals.
Strategic objective: Community and Connection
- Libraries, Living & Learning Nillumbik and Edendale Community Environment Farm ($5.46 million)
- Maternal and Child Health Services ($1.2 million)
- Community health and wellbeing, support for Nillumbik’s ageing community ($1.86 million)
- Youth services, including the new Youth Hub, community grants, festivals and events ($1.87 million).
Strategic objective: Place and Space
- Parks and reserves maintenance ($7.14 million)
- Roads and drainage management ($5.02 million)
- Property, infrastructure and asset management ($3.68 million)
- Infrastructure design, capital works management and transport ($1.64 million)
- Arts and culture ($925,000)
Strategic objective: Sustainable and Resilient
- Recycling and waste services ($12.61 million)
- Environment and conservation ($1.2 million)
- Tourism and business support ($804,000)
Strategic objective: Responsible and accountable
- Customer service and communications ($2.52 million)
- Emergency management ($1.63 million)
- Information and technology ($4.3 million)
