BendigoWeekly www.bendigoweekly.com.au
ISSUE 905 FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2015
Challenging times mean council faces
TOUGH CALLS
By PETER KENNEDY
CITY of Greater Bendigo chief executive officer Craig Niemann has spoken out about the challenges the organisation faces as it wrestles with the expected impacts of a state government cap on rates and the loss of indexation on Federal Assistance Grants, balanced against plans for a $30 million indoor aquatic facility at Kangaroo Flat. Sitting down this week for a wide ranging interview with the Bendigo Weekly, the council’s most senior officer confirmed the city faces losing at least $5m in revenue over the next three years due to the changes imposed by other levels of
HEART-TO-HEART: Craig Niemann. Photo: ANDREW PERRYMAN
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the issue is more about the project’s priority status than its overall affordability. ”And the pool has been the council’s number one priority, and we have been talking about that for a number of years because the councillors themselves did some work and said what’s number one, number two, three, four, and the pool was number one, so we’ve advocated strongly to try and make that happen.” He explained how the pool considerations had become a very complex decision about day to day service delivery and smaller community projects or larger projects that would benefit a broader population. “The state offer is as much money as has been offered for an aquatic facility outside of MSAC (Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre) in Melbourne so we are pretty fortunate to have that amount of money on the table,” he said. “We’ve done financial modelling and presented that to the council where we consider that it is affordable, it means that you cannot do everything for everyone, and there are a lot of master plans and a lot of strategies, there are good projects that, if you do the pool you cannot do those in the next couple of years, so that’s the conversation and the decision for the councillors. – Continued Page 7
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government. In the first of a two-part interview with the Weekly and midst the storm of protests accompanying the City’s stance on its possible exit from the provision of Home and Community Care (HACC) services, the closure of the Bendigo Early Learning Centre on Park Road, and debate about the proposed Greater Bendigo Indoor Aquatic Leisure and Wellness Centre, Mr Niemann also hinted ratepayers could face a rates rise this year that is less than previously expected. “So to go from our current position which has been six per cent in the council plan, we’re currently working on less than that in terms of next year’s budget, but a rate cap of let’s say three per cent, is in fact nearly $2.4m less per annum,’’ he said. “So it means something’s got to fall off, in terms of either capital works, and our ability to deliver new capital projects for the community, or looking very closely at our service delivery and what we do, in excess of what we might need to do.’’ Asked about the proposed indoor aquatic facility at Kangaroo Flat, Mr Niemann believes
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