That was the year that was – City of Ballarat council meeting briefs

For the final City of Ballarat council meeting of the year, mayor Cr Daniel Moloney ran through a list of the municipality’s achievements and projects for 2020.

Touching on the annual report, Cr Moloney said he was proud of the way that Ballarat had approached the last 12 months.

“2020 has been one of the more challenging and difficult years of our time,” he said. “I’m proud as a Ballaratarian and proud of the way our community brought itself together during this ongoing challenge.

“I’m proud to present this annual report that reflects our approach to these changes and challenges and details how we’ve continued to deliver our core services.”

In moving the motion, former mayor Cr Ben Taylor said while the year started out business as usual, it turned out to be one that hopefully will never happen again.

“We had COVID hit and that was tough and on top of that we had to terminate the CEO… and then working through and adapting to the needs of community throughout COVID,” he said.

“I don’t think the report puts all of that it in… but It was a pretty frantic and big year and it’s great to see as an organisation we’re in a really good position for the next annual report and coming into the council plan for this new council.”

 

New terms for emergency committee

Although the City of Ballarat’s Municipal Emergency Management Planning Committee had formerly operated under the control of council, last night’s meeting sought to de-establish the group in its current form.

Although council were responsible for chairing, organising and maintaining the MEMPC, a motion to authorise the CEO establish a new committee was moved.

With the aim of identifying hazards and risk reduction planning, the current MEMPC was made up of municipal emergency management staff and emergency agencies.

Due to legislative changes, MEMPC moved from council’s responsibility to that of the committee members.

Although the motion moved, Cr Samantha McIntosh said she was concerned about the lack of emergency fire services available to those within the region.

“It puts our region, locally and afield at a great deal of challenge and loss,” she said.

“Our firefighting capability has been limited or diminished… we’ve already experienced the significant changes with the helicopters being placed in Moorabbin and Essendon and then with this change in officers only being available after 1pm.

“Once this new version of committee gets activated, we need to make sure that they’re very aware of the significant concerns that our broader region and our local community have and the impacts that has further on the state.”

 

Planning framework gets green light

Under the Local Government Act 2020, council moved to adopt integrated strategic plan as is required by all Victorian municipalities.

As supported by five principles of community engagement, strategic planning, financial management, public transparency and service performance, councilors moved to adopt the new integrated plan.

In moving the mothing Cr Belinda Coates said thanks to the widespread community consultation done prior to the plan, council was in a good place to move in and execute it.

“It is a positive direction to build on,” she said. “It’s a requirement of the new Local Government Act but I think Ballarat’s in a good position to fully address that.”

As seconder Cr McIntosh said adopting this approach is a great way to move forward.

“Making sure that we have highlighted those five supporting principles… I know our community will have great confidence knowing that that’s way that our council is considering our strategic planning,” she said.

 

New cell at tip

The contract to build a new cell at the Ballarat Regional Landfill site just outside of Smythesdale has been awarded.

Although seven other tenders were received, council moved to award Goldsmith Civil Engineering the job for a total tendered price of just over $4.46 million.

To clear up concerns about the overall cost of the project, director of infrastructure and environment Bridget Weatherall said they were confident they have value for money.

“The range of tenders were up to around $10 million so this quoted price for around $4.46 million… and we are confident in the capabilities of Goldsmith Civil Engineering,” she said.

“Each cell is quite different in its construction and volume and time that it’s built.

“The last cell was constructed to provide two years of air space so basically it could accommodate two years of materials, the EPA has given us approval to build a cell that will provide five years of air space so that’s the reason for the disparity.”

Cr Taylor moved the motion saying rubbish disposal is something we have to do it really well.

“We want a better circular economy but this is what we have to deal with in dealing with the landfill in making sure we have the space available,” he said. “It is frustrating that this is a cost, but this is a cost that we have to deal with.”

 

Fresh new time

On one of their final acts for the year, councilors decided to officially change the start time of regular council meetings by half-an-hour.

From next year City of Ballarat council meetings will start at 6.30pm. Council also adopted meeting dates for the year ahead.