Council meeting update - 29 June 2021

Tuesday 29 June, 2021

Here is an overview of outcomes from tonight’s Ordinary Meeting of Tamworth Regional Council:

 Councillors tonight did not support a notice of motion from Cr Mark Rodda calling for a Consitutional referendum be held with the Local Government Elections in September this year to determine if local electors want to choose their mayor by popular vote. Under the current arrangements, the Tamworth Region Mayor is decided through a majority vote of councillors every two years in September. Cr Rodda spoke to his motion and explained “some electors believe that the position of mayor should be chosen by the people rather than Councillors”. He said a referendum is a “democratic and transparent tool to determine what method they would like to select their Mayor”. Councillors discussed Cr Rodda’s motion for some time and expressed a variety of views about the two methods for choosing a mayor.

 Tamworth Regional Council will spend a total of $251 million across its general, water and sewerage funds in 20219/20 while collecting $76.4 in income from rates and annual charges and delivering a $106.4 million capital works program to improve local facilities and infrastructure. Councillors at tonight’s Ordinary Meeting adopted the 2021/22 Annual Operational Plan which sets out the service delivery, projects and works council will carry out in the coming year along with the schedule of rates, fees and charges. The overall income from Ordinary Rates will increase by 2 per cent in 2021/22 which is the maximum increase set by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal. There is a 10% increase in the residential waste service rate from July 1 2021and increased and decreased fees and charges for the disposal of waste at the region’s nine waste management sites. Income from Water Supply Service Availability Charges and Sewerage Services will both increase by 2 per cent. The adopted 2021-22 Annual Operational Plan has a strong focus on delivering the objectives set by Blueprint 100, a future-focused strategy that will help develop infrastructure and build services to cater for a growing community. Key programs funded in the budget include: Sealed roads - $21,348,779; Unsealed roads - $5,126,917; Bridges - $3,821,762; Quality parks, gardens, reserves, showgrounds and open spaces - $4,797,015; Active sporting facilities and grounds - $4,025694; Plan construct, maintain and manage wastewater infrastructure - $18,026,654; Waste management and resource recovery - $17,810,580; and, Plan construct, maintain and manage water infrastructure - $21,294,363.

 Further actions from the Tamworth CBD Parking Strategy were adopted at tonight’s meeting. A number of parking zones will change in the Tamworth CBD to help improve availability of parking spaces for drivers. These changes will take effect on Monday 5 July, and will involve new time limits for parking between Peel and Marius streets on Bourke Street (two hours free to become two hours metered), Fitzroy Street (four hours metered to two hours metered), White Street (four hours metered to two hours metered) and the Town Hall Car Park (all day parking to become two hours metered parking). The availability of convenient, safe and appropriately priced parking spaces in the Tamworth CBD was identified as a priority following community consultation early 2020. These changes will coincide with the opening of the White Street carpark extension which has 40 additional parking spaces.

For more information, see the full reports here. 

Full details of waste fee changes can be found here.