Rates set to rise by 4.8 per cent

Central Coast Council’s draft operational plan for next financial year shows rates are set to increase by 4.8 per cent, bringing in an extra $39.6M to the Council while employee costs will go up by $18.1M.

The new financial year starts on July 1 and Council expects to adopt its operational plan and budget in June.

But first the draft, which includes a list of projects proposed to start in 2024-25, will be on public exhibition for a month for residents’ feedback.

The employee costs are assumptions based on “award requirements” according to the report and the rate rise is the highest that Council can charge.

The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) in November last year set the rate peg at a maximum of 4.8 per cent for the 2024-25 financial year.

Waste Annual Charges are proposed to increase by six per cent to reflect the cost of providing the service.

Council says the Domestic Waste Management Service charges have not increased since 2021-22.

“The increase to these charges in 2024-25 is due to the increased cost to provide the service and is an annual increase of $31 and $28 for the eastern and western areas respectively,” Council said.

Some user fees and charges – what residents pay for Council services such as pool entry, car parking, development applications, etc – go up by six per cent.

Council says the user fees and charges have been set in line with the cost of providing the service, benchmarking with the market, or as stipulated by legislation, as applicable.

“More than 10 per cent of fees are set by legislation, with most of those not being able to be increased to reflect the cost of providing the associated service,” Council said.

“Most other fees have been increased by six per cent or less, and where applicable changed to reflect the market relevant to the fee.

“In 2024-25 Council will be removing the remaining subsidy for the juniors sports usage fees.”

Council expects to receive $723.5M in operational revenue in 2024-25 and to spend $712.8M on services and operational functions.

It proposes to spend $310M on a capital works program in 2024-25 but only about $70M of that comes from the general fund; the rest comes from other restricted funds or grants.

The works program is targeted at renewing existing assets with: $125.7M, or 40.6 per cent, to address the asset backlog; $140.2M, or 45.2 per cent, to upgrade existing assets to provide additional capacity or functionality; and $44.0M, or 14.2 per cent, for new assets where the project predominately provides additional capacity or function.

By asset type, the works program shows that almost 40 per cent will be spent on water and sewer, 24 per cent on roads, 20 per cent on water supply, 14 per cent on buildings and six per cent on plant and fleet.

That leaves less than one per cent (0.4 per cent) for work on pools and 2.7 per cent for footpaths.

Council says an increase in projects would depend on external grant funding with another $32M in projects pending possible grants.

The draft operational plan sets out what works Council will undertake next year under five different departments or themes with targets and timelines.

For example, under the theme of Responsible, the Coast has more than 2,000km of roads and Council plans to re-surface 32km, renew 15km and renew or build 2.7km of drains.

Under the theme of Liveable, it will continue to build the Regional Library at Gosford and target more than 7,000 new members across all its library branches.

See the draft plan, including all the fees and charges at https://www.yourvoiceourcoast.com/

Merilyn Vale