Greater Geelong council has released a draft plan to look at its assets for the next 10 years and welcomed comments from the public.
Council endorsed the release of the draft 2022-2032 asset plan during its meeting on Tuesday, April 26.
The council’s assets included a total value of $3.1 billion, with civil infrastructure accounting for $2.2 billion and social infrastructure with a value of $956 million.
Council deputy mayor Trent Sullivan said one of the main goals of the plan would be to lay out how the council plans to renew its existing assets.
“While council will continue to deliver new facilities and infrastructure to cater to our population growth, we will have a strong focus on renewing our existing assets so they can continue to meet the community’s needs,” he said.
“This is aimed at ensuring residents have equal access to the places, spaces and services that council provides, regardless of where they live.”
Finance portfolio chair Anthony Aitken said the plan would detail how the council would manage and maintain its assets over the next 10 years.
“With a growing asset base, and anticipated degradation, the challenge is to ensure our assets are maintained in a financially sustainable way over the next 10 years,” he said.
“The size of our asset base will only increase as we invest in new facilities and assume management of assets such as parks, roads, drainage and footpaths in newly developed areas.”
Cr Aitken said the document would reflect the need to spend more on the renewal of existing and “significantly aging” assets.
“We need to spend about 80 per cent of our available funds for maintenance into renewal,” he said.
“We can’t just keep giving out new assets and responding to new demands that are put before us by the community.”
Councillor Bruce Harwood said creating new assets presented a double-edged sword in that funding is required for the creation and maintenance of assets.
“We unfortunately do chase our tail a little bit in trying to make sure we meet the community expectations,” he said.
“There’ll be ideas and thoughts there that we can take on board and feedback through the organisation and hope we get a better system, one the community can understand and also be a part of.”
Community consultation on the draft 2022-2032 asset plan will close at 5pm on Tuesday, May 24.
Details: yoursay.geelongaustralia.com.au/AP
