The second remote Ordinary General Meeting of Wingecarribee Shire Council will be held on May 27.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The meeting will be held broadcast to the community through live streaming on council's Facebook page and will begin at 3.30pm.
Council's general manager Ann Prendergast, mayor councillor Duncan Gair and essential staff will conduct the meeting from council's Moss Vale Civic Centre.
Members of the public who register for public forum or visitor items have the option to join the meeting via video conferencing or prepare a written submission to be read at the meeting.
Residents are encouraged to watch the live stream on Council's Facebook Page at www.facebook.com/WingecarribeeShireCouncil.
Residents without access to Facebook can watch the recording a few days later via council's YouTube channel.
Council Meetings are held on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month with the agenda and minutes of previous meetings available online at www.wsc.nsw.gov.au/council-meetings.
READ MORE:
- Take a journey down the 2020 Southern Highlands Arts Trail
- HarbisonCare visitors' pod to keep aged care residents, loved ones connected
- Wingecarribee Council has nine day turnaround for some Development Applications
- Paint your own portrait by numbers with Wingecarribee Council support
- Southern Highlands artist Zoe Young recreates the calm in COVID-19 chaos
- Isolation prompts reunion of former Southern Highlands students after almost 50 year
For more information contact Wingecarribee Shire Council on phone 4868 0888.
Among the items on the agenda for the May 27 meeting are:
Draft budget, operational plan
The draft 2020/21 Operational Plan, Budget, Revenue Policy including Fees and Charges will go before council with a staff recommendation that it be endorsed for public exhibition from May 29, 2020 to June 26, 2020.
The draft 2020/21 Operational Plan outlines the projects, programs and activities (annual deliverables) that council will undertake during the 2020/21 financial year.
The annual deliverables are aligned to council's services and four-year actions from the Delivery Program.
In addition, the draft plan demonstrates council's response and commitment to the delivery of the Community Strategic Plan, Wingecarribee 2031.
The plan is structured around the five themes of Leadership, People, Places, Environment and Economy from Wingecarribee 2031.
Included in the draft 2020/21 Operational Plan is the draft Budget and Capital Works Program.
The draft for Council's Consolidated Fund is presented as a balanced budget. After removing non-cash expenditure and reserve transfers, Council's proposed cash expenditure budget for 2020/21 is $157.536 million.
The NSW State Government provided a one-month extension for all councils to formally adopt its 2020/21 Operational Plan and Budget (up to July 31, 2020).
Among the funding initiatives included in the budget for the year ahead are:
- Establishment of an animal shelter reserve with an opening balance of $5.2 million (subject to the satisfactory settlement of the land sales).
- Mittagong Momorial Hall rectification work estimated at $2.5 million (inclusive of design and preliminaries).
- Station Street upgrade and Mittagong public parking. The current budget estimate for the Station Street upgrade project is $16.333 million. As works have been delayed due to finalising the design requirements with the relevant state agencies, council has to consider escalation cost impacts. It is recommended that $929,000 be allocated to the project as part of the 2020/21 budget to allow for cost escalation. A further $1 million is also recommended for inclusion in the draft 2020/21 Budget for public carparking improvements at Mittagong Train Station.
- The draft Capital Works proposed for the 2020/21 financial year includes funding for major infrastructure renewal projects and upgrades to essential community infrastructure. The proposed total of Capital Works is $67.564 million.
Council is also proposing to borrow $49.010 million over the next four years (2020/21 - 2023/24). The draft budget plan to council suggests that the borrowed monies will be used to fund, or in some cases, part-fund major infrastructure projects which would have significant and demonstrated benefits to the residents of Wingecarribee Shire over the coming decades.
Seymour Park
Ammendments to the Draft Seymour Park Masterplan in Moss Vale will be consider.
The Draft Masterplan was placed on public exhibition from December 3, 2019 until January 28, 2020.
It proposed the inclusion of all-abilities play equipment, appropriate parking and access paths to enhance the social aspects of the park for the community.
The Masterplan was also designed to ensure that all visitors to the park could access the amenities, the playground and the parking area via safe pathways that meet Australian Standards.
Council's capital works program for the park includes $369,232 for Stage 1 works programmed for construction in the 2020/21 financial year.
In addition, council has been successful in obtaining a further $200,000 in grant funds from the NSW Government's Everyone Can Play Grant which will allow for construction of Stage 2 works in 2020/21.
Stage 3 works will be programmed in a future year in line with capital works prioritisation.
A total of 14 submissions were received and fifteen people attended onsite information kiosks during the exhibition period.
A report to council said that overall the feedback was positive with a number of people showing support for the proposed park improvements. Several people indicated they greatly valued Seymour Park for its off-leash dog area and didn't want to see any development works negatively impact on this aspect of the park located in Spencer Street, Moss Vale.
The report said that some feedback was also received regarding traffic congestion at the Lovelle Street entry point to the off-leash dog area and concerns this would become worse when the Chelsea Gardens and Coomungie development was populated.
This was investigated by Council's Traffic Engineer and Traffic and Transport Planning Engineer and it was determined to not require an extension of the 'No Parking' area along Lovelle Street, but rather to plan for a bay of 90-degree parking on the park side of the street.
Amendments to the draft masterplan are in line with the engineer's suggestion that 90-degree parking has been added at Lovelle Street along the park side as Stage 3 works.
Council staff have recommended that:
- Council adopts the amended Draft Seymour Park Masterplan noting the addition of 90-degree parking along Lovelle Street as Stage 3 works.
- That staff write to all submission makers confirming council's decision.
- 3. That staff write to the NSW Government's Everyone Can Play Grant to express council's thanks for their funding support.
Land acquisition
Compulsory land acquisition Railway Parade, Mittagong, will be up for consideration.
A report to council aims to obtain the necessary council resolutions to proceed with the land acquisition negotiations for land off Railway Parade, Mittagong (being part Lot 19 Deposited Plan 1108714) for the purpose of public open space, fire trail and future shared pathway.
State Rail Authority (SRA) is the registered proprietor of the whole of the land which extends across 11,985.65 sqm. The segment of land proposed to be acquired is approximately 895.8 sqm and is zoned R2 - Low Density Residential.
The proposed acquisition of this land will be funded from the Property Development Reserve, with the amount of compensation payable to be determined by formal valuation and by negotiation with Transport for NSW.
Council staff have recommended:
- That the General Manager be delegated authority to negotiate with the owner of Lot 19 in Deposited Plan 1108714 at Mittagong for the acquisition of part of the land known as Lot 19 DP 1108714 (being part railway land off Railway Parade, Mittagong) for the purpose of Open Space.
- That if the acquisition referred to in Resolution 1 cannot be negotiated by agreement council resolves to: (a) acquire the Land by compulsory acquisition under Section 186 and 187 of the Local Government Act 1993 and in accordance with the requirements of the Land Acquisition (Just Terms Compensation) Act, 1991 (NSW). (b) approve the making of an application to the Minister of Local Government for the issue of a proposed Acquisition Notice under the Land Acquisition (Just Terms Compensation) Act 1991 (NSW) with respect to the Land and that council request the Minister for Local Government approve a reduction in the notification period from ninety (90) days to sixty (60) days; (c) approve the making of an application to the Governor for the publication of an Acquisition Notice in the NSW Government Gazette under the Land Acquisition (Just Terms Compensation) Act 1991 (NSW) with respect of the Land.
- That council affix the Common Seal to the Plan of Acquisition and any documents relating to that plan required to be sealed for the acquisition of land referred to in resolution 1 above and that authority be delegated to the mayor and general manager to execute those documents.
- That authority be delegated to the mayor and general manager to execute on behalf of council any documents associated with the compulsory acquisition of the land referred to in resolution 1 above that does not require the Common Seal of Council.
