JUNE 10, 2020 \ STARWEEKLY.COM.AU
Council budget blow By Alesha Capone Wyndham council has forecast a $30.2 million budget shortfall for the current inancial year. he coronavirus, a reduction in ines and lower-than-expected revenue from the Werribee tip are expected to signiicantly impact the council’s inances. Key drivers behind the anticipated deicit include a $5.2 million lower net operating result from the tip, a $3.4 million reduction in revenue from statutory fees and ines, and a $3.2 million drop in user fees related to recreational and sports facilities, according to the March quarterly inancial report. he report stated the mandated closure of council facilities during the coronavirus pandemic was one of the reasons for the loss of revenue. According to the report, the loss of revenue from the Werribee tip comes ater major commercial customers, who took their business elsewhere when there were delays experienced in obtaining an EPA works approval in 2017, have subsequently negotiated lower landill prices or started using multiple landill sites. Cr Aaron An said that, in the past, the council’s inancial position “has been a bit too reliant on revenue generated from the RDF (refuse disposal facility)”. He said the council needed to ind other ways to remain self-suicient. he inancial report stated the reduction in revenue from ines and infringements could be partly attributed to the introduction of the Wyndham Enforcement Policy, which had resulted in “behavioural change” and a lower number of ines being issued. he policy provides a framework upon which council oicers base their enforcement decisions. he report also stated: “Council has also been required to adopt a diferent approach to enforcement during COVID-19 and this is expected to result in lower revenue than assumed in the budget for the full inancial year.” Cr Heather Marcus said it was good to “see that people have probably been watching their behaviour” when it came to matters such as parking. “he council oicers have been wonderful, they have been very lenient with a lot of our people,” she said.
Coding is top class Robots rock – just ask students from the west who have been participating in a coding program. The four-week Robots at Home Coding Challenge is being delivered by Wyndham Tech School, which is based at Victoria University’s Werribee campus. The Coding Challenge is the brainchild of Gail Bray, the newly-appointed Wyndham Tech School director and Victoria University Polytechnic’s general manager of learning and innovation. “Artiicial intelligence and machine learning are skills required for the future of work,” Ms Bray said. “With COVID-19, students have been unable to visit the Wyndham Tech School, so with our partner schools, we thought we would take the robots to them.” Thomas Carr College in Tarneit was the irst of six schools to participate in the coding program, hand-delivering small robots to the homes of year 7 students as part of their digital technology curriculum. Educational resources company The Brainary, based in Geelong West, provided the robots and weekly online sessions. The students learn to program a robot for a scenario in which it would meet people arriving at the Royal Children’s Hospital. They look at camera control, sound, speech recognition and more. Thomas Carr principal Craig Holmes said the coding challenge had been a great way to bridge the period between when students were learning at home due to the pandemic and returning to school this week. Other schools participating in the challenge are Bayside P-12 College, Featherbrook P-9 College, The Grange P-12 College and Good News Lutheran College. Thomas Carr College year 7 student Joseph. (Damjan Janevski) 209242_03
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Alesha Capone