Council in spat over rural jobs

Councillor takes on finance GM

THE introduction of an internal review to improve the efficiency of services and outcomes at the Toowoomba Regional Council has turned into a spat over regional jobs.

Finance and business strategy general manager Arun Pratap will lead the new service delivery review program, which was approved by the council at the committee meeting on Wednesday.

Mr Pratap explained to councillors that the program was part of a growing expectation from the State Government for councils to think more efficiently with its strategy and operations.

“The SDR program will investigate and identify business improvement options from a ‘strategic organisational’ and ‘functional service delivery’ perspective,” Mr Pratap said.

But the discussion devolved into a heated back-and-forth when Deputy Mayor Carol Taylor questioned whether the program would result in the loss of regional jobs or depots.

She particularly criticised a directive included with the program that would provide weighting for people applying for council jobs in the communities they lived in, saying it would not safeguard jobs.

“We’ve got people already out in the district, so that’s nothing going forward, unless we’ve got a depot out there that’s going to keep them in the community,” Cr Taylor said.

In response, Mr Pratap explained that the directives were based on feedback from regional communities when the council was formulating the corporate plan.

Cr Taylor was still dissatisfied with the answer, saying she was concerned with the scope of the program, and whether it would lead to depots closing.

Both Crs Anne Glasheen and Bill Cahill spoke in favour of the program.

Mr Pratap confirmed to The Chronicle the program had “no appetite for forced redundancies”.