Recycling concerns voiced – Ballarat council meeting briefs

COUNCILLOR Ben Taylor kicked off a discussion during the reports from committees and councillors section of the Wednesday, 31 July City of Ballarat council meeting.

He talked about the community’s lack of faith in recycling and the frustration felt by ratepayers and the municipality due to the ongoing dilemma with SKM, the city’s recycling service provider.

Terry Demeo, Director for Infrastructure and Environment said that recycling service provision was a changing landscape.

Mr Demeo outlined the plans for the waste interchange transfer station in the north-east corner of the Ballarat West Industrial Zone, noting it is crown land that is unserviced and a submission has been made for transfer of the land.

Justine Linley, CEO suggested contacting the Premier and Treasurer for the money to get the waste station up and running.

Councillor Mark Harris said, “It is time the State government gets off its arse, it is a joke and a failure of government.”

While Councillor Grant Tillett said he was feeling miffed by the lack of effort from the Economic Development Department seeking businesses who can reprocess the recycled waste.

“It is about the reuse and adapting of rubbish, there is no point in just collecting the stuff, we need businesses to change it into something useable,” he said.

All councillors agreed with the CEO’s suggestion, with a motion passed to request a deputation to the Premier, Treasurer and local Members of Parliament for support.

Council supports Clemente Ballarat

Josha-Lyn Gibson sat patiently in the public gallery until the motion to approve a five-year Strategic Partnership Agreement with Clemente Ballarat for $15,000 per year was put forward.

Ms Gibson gave an impassioned statement on her experience in the Clemente partnership.

Clemente Ballarat is a free tertiary educational program for local adults facing multiple forms of disadvantage. It is a formal partnership between Australian Catholic University, Federation University, Centacare, The Smith Family, The Ballarat Foundation and the City of Ballarat.

Ms Gibson is in a first year of a Bachelor of Arts at Fed Uni and she said she owes it all to the Clemente Partnership.

“It has completely changed my life around, if I hadn’t had the opportunity to do this via Clemente I would be on a different path in my life,” she said.

Councillor Des Hudson said her speech was more than justification for giving the $15,000 funding to the partnership.

“This is a small contribution on our part, to hear a young person say she was dealing with mental health issues and had forgotten how to learn and now she is a catalyst for others to learn is validation indeed,” Cr Hudson said.

The motion was carried unanimously.

$10 mill borrowed

Most councillors approved a loan for $10 million to advance recreation projects as per the current municipal budget.

Councillor Amy Johnson, along with Cr Harris and Cr Taylor voted against the recommendation as they do not support further borrowings.

The proposal to take a $10 million loan for sporting infrastructure projects originated from a pre-election promise by the State government in August 2018, that a low interest loan would be provided for these purposes. To date the loan has not materialised.

Councillor Johnson said it has been nine months since the election when this money was promised.

“We need to live with our means, if we knew it would take this loan maybe we wouldn’t have gone down this path,” she said.

Councillor Hudson said council has lost 12 months of opportunity where it could have had things done.

“It is in our budget so we should proceed and not take the dropped ball attitude of the government, we need to save face with the sporting groups,” he said.

Councillor Jim Rinaldi agreed with Cr Hudson saying it is about the sporting community and they should not be disappointed.

Parking plan petition

A unanimous vote was carried to accept the petition from the residents and ratepayers of Talbot Street North rejecting the Smarter Parking Plan and requesting there are no changes to the current parking time limits and number of residential parking permits.

In response Cr Harris who moved the motion said, “Smart parking is about moving around the city better not about raising extra revenue.”

Land valuation

The adoption of 2019 General Valuation was carried unanimously.

It was noted by Cr Taylor that land valuations are out of council’s control as it is the State government that conducts the process.

“The sad news is the community has to deal with this on an annual basis,” he said.

Council’s Chief Financial Officer, Glen Kallio, said the property revaluations do not make money for the council.

“We have to reduce the valuations by a formula to arrive at the same amount of the 2.5 per cent rate cap we have in the budget,” he said. “Some ratepayers will receive a decrease while some will have an increase.”