4 minute read
General manager’s message
This year, we’ve had the opportunity to strengthen our foundations – the bedrock that kept us strong during some tough times over the past few years. These foundations have enabled us to withstand multiple storm events and the far-reaching impacts of a worldwide pandemic. Over the past year, we’ve worked to further secure these foundations. We’ve focused on making sure we’re financially stable, that we deliver services valued by our community and that we include our community in our decision making.
A resilient and connected community
Despite kicking off the new financial year with another natural disaster, we supported the community by helping to close local roads and provide resources where needed, and most importantly maintained the Emergency Dashboard. With over 20 roads closed during the flooding event, Council played a key role in assisting the SES, Police and other emergency services.
Our support continued after the floodwaters receded as we collaborated with Resilience NSW and other Government agencies to establish 5 Rapid Assistance Points across Raymond Terrace and Hinton.
The beginning of 2023 saw us celebrating our most significant Australia Day yet, during which we welcomed 83 new citizens. The ‘It’s On!’ activation program continued and major events like Karuah by Night and the Raymond Terrace Festival became a reality thanks to external funding.
These grants allowed us to implement a comprehensive program of events and activations across Port Stephens all of which helped build community connections and increase the vibrancy of our public places.
Leading up to the NSW Election, we continued our advocacy work by voicing our community priorities. With the support of the incoming NSW Government, we secured a commitment of $10 million for the repair and rehabilitation of our local roads.
We also established the Homelessness Stakeholder Advocacy Group to help with addressing the impacts of homelessness in Port Stephens. Together with key agencies, we’re working on both short and long term solutions to help those struggling to find a place to live in Port Stephens.
Responsible Resource Management
One of the most important roles we have here at Council is the responsible management of our resources – balancing the needs of our growing community and our Council’s long term financial sustainably is always a challenge but one that we continue to improve. This year, we’ve worked with our community to identify ways to build our financial sustainability. We focused on finding efficiencies, reviewing our fees and charges, increasing smart parking revenue, asset sales and focus on obtaining state and federal grants. We also resolved to apply for a Special Rate Variation to support the ongoing delivery of our services.
On 15 June 2023, IPART announced that our application was successful. The new rates commenced on the 1 July 2023 and will support the reduction of projected budget shortfalls and ensure services across Port Stephens can be retained.
This outcome from IPART followed extensive engagement with the community. Over the past year, we heard more than 16,000 active responses via our community drop in sessions, presentations to community groups, through social media or our online surveys. This is not the end, though. We’ll continue to make sure we have our foundations right; we’ll continue to focus on our service review program and where we find savings, we’ll use these to improve services that are important to our community; fixing our roads, protecting our environment, and improving our public spaces.
This year, through savings made within our Waste Services, we’ve been able to introduce our new Green Bin system. By separating and recycling our green waste we’ve been able to generate significant cost savings allowing us to provide this service – you can find out more about this as you read on page 105.
Delivering outcomes that matter
As the financial year came to a close, we finalised one of one of our largest capital works programs to date. We repaired more than12,802m2 of road, filled more than 59,000 potholes, welcomed 170,142 people to our libraries and held more than 86 events and activations with the support of external funding. Over the next year, we’ll continue to work closely with our community and focus on issues we know are a priority. Housing, resource management, town centre improvements economic development and infrastructure improvements will be front of mind as we plan for the future.
I want to acknowledge and thank our Mayor and Councillors for their commitment to our community and our teams for their dedication to delivering outcomes that matter.
I am exceptionally proud to lead such a strong and committed group of people and look forward to an even bigger and better year ahead.
