Council Meeting Update - 11 June 2024

Tuesday, 11 June 2024

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

• After consideration of the Tamworth Regional Council Heritage Working Group (TRCHWG) meeting minutes, Council voted to amend the Terms of Reference. Whilst this means the King George V Avenue Working Group Sub Committee will be dissolved, there will be an enhanced opportunity for collaboration, as a representative from King George V Avenue will be included in TRCHWG, and noting there is already a representative from King George V Avenue on the Urban Street Tree Management Plan Advisory Group. Council have also agreed to write to Hon. Kevin Anderson and recommend that the “School House at Hallsville” be sold or gifted to a project like BackTrack, as this was identified as an ideal site to enable its preservation.
• A number of Councillors highlighted successful literacy outcomes for local children when they considered a report about Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and agreed to continue to promote the program in the local government area and actively pursue corporate and community sponsorship and donations. They agreed to allocate $200,000 from the 2024-25 and 2025-26 General Fund to part finance the program for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 financial years. They also decided to investigate other similar models in an effort to manage ongoing cost increases and write to the State Member for Tamworth, Kevin Anderson to lobby the State Government for funding to continue delivery of the program in our Local Government Area. Council brought Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to the region five years ago offering all children born locally the opportunity to receive a free age-appropriate book in the mail each month until the age of five. Council is in partnership with United Way Australia which administers the program across the nation. A total of 4070 children have received 118,196 books since January 2019 with 275 children “graduating” since January 2024. The report explained that while Dolly Parton initiated the program, she does not financially support it in Australia and it can only continue with the ongoing financial support of Council along with corporate and community donations. Since January 2023 there has been a total of $185,397 received from community and corporate donations toward the ongoing annual cost of more than $380,000.
• To continue knowledge sharing and collaboration between Councils in relation to water and wastewater, including new ideas for improving our water security, Councillors tonight nominated Councillor Judy Coates to attend the 2024 Local Government Water Management Conference with a number of senior staff from the Water and Waste directorate. The conference will be held in Goulburn at the end of July and will feature speakers such as Tanya Plibersek MP (Minister for Environment and Water), Rose Jackson MLC (NSW Minister for Water), representatives from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment, and Water, other Councils, and several others.