Sharps fees remain, roads budget reduced

by Yvette Brand Fees to purchase sharps disposal containers were introduced as part of the budget adopted by Baw Baw Shire Council last week.

The draft budget released by council in March attracted little community feedback, except from a number of submissions calling on council to abandon proposals to charge fees for sharps containers.

There were 23 submissions to the budget, council plan, rating strategy and long term financial and infrastructure plans. Eight objections were from community members concerned about the sharps containers fees.

The budget, adopted virtually without change, includes the sharps containers fees which will be $3.50 for a small container and $6.50 for a large container. Disposal of the containers will continue to be a free service.

Cr Murray Cook said there had been a lot of submissions about the sharps containers but there also had been a lot of misinformation.

“Council is merely passing on the cost of the containers. Our responsibility is to get rid of them when they are used.

“This is the role of local government and it is an important responsibility of council. It is our responsibility to get rid of the waste of the sharps and containers,” he said.

As expected, council adopted the 2.5 per cent rate increase in line with the state government’s rate capping.

The budget features total operating expenditure of $65.9 million.

Income from rates will be $43.5 million, with a further $7.5 million to be raised through waste services. Garbage rates were retained at $376.

The capital works program of $29.7 million includes $28.4 million new works and $1.3 million of projects carried over from this year.

Road works is down more than $1 million from the draft budget, although this was not highlighted in the budget report or by councillors.

Community assets director Phil Cantillon responded to a query from The Gazette, explaining the works had been reduced as a result of receiving only $588,0000 in federal blackspot funding instead of $2.2 million.

As a result, Mr Cantillon said a number of projects had been withdrawn from the budget including: Labertouche Rd, Labertouche; Kitchener St, Trafalgar; Jacksons Trk, LabertoucheJindivick; Moir Rd, Trafalgar; and Butlers Trk/King St, Warragul.

Among the major highlights in the capital works program is a $9 million building improvement program including $1.4 million for stage three of the Warragul Leisure Centre redevelopment, $1 million for Ellinbank recreation reserve and $4.30 million ($4 million to be borrowed) for the West Gippsland Arts Centre redevelopment.

Cr Peter Kostos said in some ways this year’s budget had been easier because of the rate cap.

“For the officers it has been a process of working through that. Having said that, there has been a lot of work behind the scenes.

Cr Kostos said as a result of community submissions, council had committed to sealing a car park at Walhalla, which will be a $20,000 project.

He said this commitment showed council did listen to submissions and other feedback in submissions would be taken into consideration in future budgets.

Cr Debbie Brown said council’s capital works program of $30 million was comparable to many metropolitan councils.

She said the only reason council was able to achieve such an extensive capital works program with the 2.5 per cent rate cap was the salary savings made by council.

“We are slowly getting our things back to where we need to be at,” she said.