27 February 2007 - Ordinary Meeting of Council (pdf. 14MB)

Ordinary Meeting of Council - 27 February 2007 5 / 2
Item 5
S02779
2 February 2007
PURPOSE OF REPORT
To present to Council an analysis of the NSW Department of Local Government Comparative Data
Report for 2004/2005.
BACKGROUND
The 2006-2010 Management Plan requires that a formal report be presented to Council to analyse
the NSW Department of Local Government Comparative Data report for 2004/2005. The
requirement as contained in the Management Plan is as follows:
Principal Activity:
Performance Indicator:
Due Date:
Council’s Corporate Services
Report and analysis of NSW Department of Local Government
Comparative Data report 2004/2005 to Council.
2 nd quarter
COMMENTS
Each year the Department of Local Government releases ‘The Comparative Information Return on
New South Wales Local Government Councils’. The latest report released in January 2007 is for
the 2004/2005 financial year. The data is collected by an electronic survey of Councils as well as
from Councils’ Annual Financial Statements, NSW Grants Commission Returns and Notional Rate
Returns.
Comparative information provided for Local Government enables a performance assessment to be
carried out with other ‘like’ Councils.
When comparing one Council with another it is important to be aware that the key performance
indicators do not on their own give the full picture of a Council’s performance. The figures provide
indicators only and conclusions should not be drawn without qualitative assessments being made.
The Australian Classification of Local Governments categorises Councils according to their socioeconomic
characteristics and their capacity to deliver a range of services to the community.
• Initially, it is a system based on whether a Council is principally ‘Urban’ or ‘Rural’.
• Urban Councils are then subdivided on the basis of whether they are ‘capital cities’,
‘metropolitan developed’, ‘regional town/city’ or ‘fringe’.
• The final classification step is division based on population size.
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