Pleas on budgets
Residents make their pitch
RESIDENTS will attempt to secure funding support in Geelong region council budgets at panel hearings starting next week.
Geelong and Surf Coast Shire councils will consider modifying their proposed 2018-19 budgets on Tuesday, in the face of widespread calls for change.
A total of 89 submissions were received in relation to Geelong’s draft budget and its 2018-22 council plan.
Those residents and organisations are able to present their case in more detail at a submissions panel hearing at City Hall.
While in previous years it has been hosted by a select committee, Geelong council’s finance and strategy director, Peter Anderson, said all 11 councillors were likely to attend.
The panel hearings have proven influential, with lobby- ists securing greater support for sporting facilities, after 22 groups appeared in 2016.
Intense criticism and passionate campaigning last year also led to Geelong’s administrators reversing a decision to shut the Chilwell, Highton and Barwon Heads libraries. Extra funding was allocated to the smaller branches and they remain open.
The budget, which proposes an average 2.25 per cent rate rise and 14 per cent ($38.85) jump in waste charges, is set to be adopted on June 26.
The biggest increase for waste charges across the G21 region is at Golden Plains Shire and the issue is expected to be a focus of its panel hearing on June 12. The council received 34 submissions to its draft budget, which includes a massive 31 per cent price hike for residential rubbish collections.
Surf Coast Shire received 29 submissions on its draft budget and 15 of those have asked to present at the panel.