Low expectations on hub
Mayor not confident of government funding
GEELONG’S Mayor has admitted he is not confident City Hall’s $60 million Northern ARC project will receive the government backing it needs to be fully realised.
Neither state nor federal government have committed to funding the additional $40 million needed to develop the state-of-the-art preventive and health wellbeing centre that the council says will generate $111 million in preventive health benefits to the com- munity over 10 years.
City of Greater Geelong’s $20.6 million investment in the proposed project is the largest infrastructure contribution the council has ever made.
But Geelong Mayor Bruce Harwood said the council could not fully fund the project on its own.
“The project is in the design phase at the moment and we’ll progress it as far as we can, but we can’t possibly fund it on our own,” Cr Harwood said.
“At the moment I’m not confident (in receiving funding) at all, because I’ve been given no indication yet of where the state and federal governments sit with this.
“I’d really like to get clarity on it.”
The council has continually pushed for the project to be funded under a City Deal but has not received any guaranteed funding, despite the pro- ject entering the design and consultation phase.
“We’ve been saying from the start of the City Deals discussion that we’d like to see Northern ARC included in there, and every time I’ve met with members of parliament at state and federal level, I’ve mentioned the Northern ARC — even as recently as last week,” Cr Harwood said.
He said an application for funding through the regional growth fund was still pending.
If it comes to fruition, the hub will be built on Cox Rd, Norlane, and feature facilities and integrated services to address health issues among residents.
A spokeswoman from the federal Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities said some applications for grants for the project were under review.
“Although the Australian Government has not announced funding for this project at this time, the City of Greater Geelong can apply for funding from a number of competitive grants programs — some of which are currently under assessment,” the spokeswoman said.
A spokesman for State Health Minister Jill Hennessy said the Government was focusing on the $33 million Barwon Health North urgent care facility project. He said the council had not made any formal representations to the government for funding.