Attachments - City of Busselton

COUNCIL 24/04/2013
ITEM 9.2 ATTACHMENT
69
Finance Committee 04/04/2013
• The Dunsborough Landscaping and Lighting project is scheduled for completion in the
current financial year. City officers are working closely with all the relevant stakeholders to
ensure a favourable outcome.
• Due to a Department of Environment and Conservation decision in 2012 to limit the City’s
available land‐fill airspace, $1.5M was budgeted for the staged construction of a new lined
and drained cell that would meet new environmental waste management requirements. The
construction has subsequently been put on hold due to a favourable decision obtained from
the DEC that will now allow the City to bench‐up its waste to the natural contours of the
surrounding area. This has extended the useful life of this area however the new cell will still
need to be constructed within three years.
• For over three years City Officers has attempted to satisfy the requirement for building a
suitable wash‐down facility ($120K) for its Rubbish Trucks within the boundaries of its tip
sites. Unfortunately strict environmental requirements have served to make this project
non‐viable. To this end, the project has been postponed and will not be re‐budgeted for a
fourth year until a reasonable common‐sense solution is found. As this project was to be
funded from the Waste Management Facility and Plant Reserve, there will be no direct
impact on the City’s closing surplus/ deficit position. The matter is also under
reconsideration due to the potential future opportunity that might present itself with the
Rendezvous Road site.
In addition to the above overview, several other matters pertaining to the Infrastructure budget are
worthy of note:
• Dunsborough Skate‐park
A Lotterywest grant of $109K was recently approved to contribute towards construction,
landscaping, furniture and lighting at the new skate‐park facility. In order to recognise the grant,
and the associated increase in capital expenditure, this report recommends an amendment be made
to the City’s adopted 2012/13 annual budget.
• Airport Construction
The ‘Infrastructure’ budget includes approximately $1.5M in capital works for the Busselton Regional
Airport. With the exception of $50K toward the drainage works, the remaining expenditure is to be
funded from grants and other external funding sources. However, as external funding has been
unable to be secured at this time, it is projected that the associated works will not be commenced in
the current financial year. This also applies to the Airport Terminal (Stage 2) building works referred
to under the ‘Land and Buildings’ section. Notwithstanding this, the drainage works of $100K (50%
grant funded) were in fact finalised in the 2011/12 financial year and as such, this budget allocation
was not required in 2012/13. Consequently, the City’s budgeted contribution to this project of $50K
will not be required, and will favourably impact on the City’s closing surplus/ deficit position. As
previously mentioned, it should be noted that the Council has a grant application in with the Federal
Government for $0.5M towards the Airport Terminal upgrade.
In summary of the above, the Engineering and Works Services Directorate estimate that a number of
projects may be required to be carried over to the 2013/14 financial year. Whilst this may artificially
inflate the final closing surplus/ deficit position for 2012/13, this will be offset by the need to re‐list
these projects in the 2013/14 draft budget. Additionally, other projects being deferred (and
particularly in respect of sanitation related expenditure) are reserve funded and as such, there will
be no net impact on the closing position. Notwithstanding this however, a saving of $50K has been
identified with regards to the Airport drainage works.