Council meeting 28th June report
Here is an overview of outcomes from Tamworth Regional Council’s Ordinary Meeting on Thursday 28th June 2023:
Councillors at tonight’s Ordinary Meeting adopted the 2023/24 Our Annual Plan and Budget 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. Tamworth Regional Council will spend a total of $87,771,960 in capital works across its general, water and sewerage funds in 2023/24 to improve local facilities and infrastructure while collecting $84,277,917.00 in income from rates and annual charges. Council adopted the annual maximum rate peg for 2023/24 to increase the overall income from Ordinary Rates by 3.7 per cent as approved by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal as well as an increase of 8 per cent to both the water availability (connection) charge and the water consumption (usage) charge and an overall 6 per cent increase to waste charges.
Council has reaffirmed its commitment to fighting crime in our region with Councillors adopting the Draft Community Safety and Crime Prevention Plan 2023-2028. The plan will guide Council’s crime prevention initiatives for the next five years with a focus on key areas including ‘Safe Spaces and People’, ‘Youth Support’ and ‘Connected Communities’. The report showed a good level of engagement in the community consultation phase with 118 responses from a broad section of the community. Now that Council has adopted the plan the next steps are to seek endorsement from the NSW Attorney General Department as a ‘Safer Community Compact’ to allow funding to be sought to support actions of the plan.
Tonight, Council has taken its next steps to develop the Tamworth Regional Youth Strategy and Action Plan, approving the allocation of funds to appoint specialist consultants to support the Youth Council to complete this initiative. The Youth Council selected the preferred consultant via a quotation process with support from an advisory panel of Council staff. This strategy will identify initiatives and actions to achieve in the youth sector over the next four to six years.
In another one of Council’s ongoing initiatives to improve water security for our region Councillors received and noted a report in relation to Council’s involvement in the Water in the Landscape Initiative. The initiative aims to be a
collaboration on water education, research, and advocacy, emphasising, amongst other things, the importance of holding water in the environment rather than allowing it to flow quickly into rivers and streams. One of the benefits to flow from holding water in the environment includes increased water security in the Region. The initiative is lead by the University of New England and also includes a number of other stakeholders from the wider area. The next step for the group is to prepare a strategic plan.
Councillors agreed to support a three-year sponsorship proposal from Nutrien Ag Solutions for the annual Nutrien Classic Campdraft and Sale as well as the Nutrien Graduate Campdraft and Sale which have been held at the Australian Equine and Livestock Events Centre for the past 13 years. The event is the biggest performance horse sale in the southern hemisphere and generates in excess of $9 million into the Tamworth region economy attracting over 4,500 visitors per day.
An exciting new sport event has been secured with Councillors approving three-year sponsorship agreement with Golf NSW. Under the agreement Tamworth will see three elite amateur golf championship tournaments make the region home in 2024, 2025 and 2026. Tamworth will be recognised as a sporting hub capable of delivering a diverse range of significant sporting events.
Fitzroy Street between Peel Street and Kable Avenue may soon have a new name after Councillors tonight agreed to explore options for the naming of the area which potentially included Aboriginal words for “meeting place”. The request came from the Tamworth City Centre Working Group which discussed the suggestion for an official name for the area on Fitzroy Street at its last meeting.
More events in our region will be receiving financial support after Councillors tonight approved a number of fee waiver requests including the National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) Futurity, the Hockey NSW Under 13 Boy’s Field State Championship and the Legacy Centenary Celebrations. Each of these events attracting their own type of visitors but all generating a substantial boost to the Tamworth economy with combined estimate economic benefit of over $7.8 million.
For more information, see the full reports at www.tamworth.nsw.gov.au/businesspapers
Watch the Mayor’s video report here https://www.facebook.com/TamworthRegionalCouncil/