|
The next three (3) years are important for the Council. Financial sustainability has become the focus for the organisation.
This means we will be looking at the
long term financial planning for the Council. This has become possible
because of the solid financial recovery that has been put into place
over the past three (3) years.
The focus on financial
sustainability will be a major challenge for the Council because our
revenue continues to fail to meet the demands placed on us for services
by the community. It is also the only major change in direction laid
down in this management plan from our previous management plan.
Our main focus for the next three years will be;
- Maintaining steady economic growth
- Ensuring financial sustainability for Council
- Maintaining, development of and protecting community assets
- Providing a safer community
- Promoting Moree as a positive and healthy lifestyle choice and regional centre
The focus on reviewing our systems and the level of services provided
to the community will continue. The challenge of containing the growth
in expenditure and to improve the productivity of our services remains.
We will be reviewing our maintenance practises and developing long-term
maintenance plans for our roads, bridges, buildings, parks and
reserves. By building 10 to 15 year maintenance plans for our assets we
can better plan for future budgets and help by smoothing out any peaks
in expenditure over this period.
We have further improved the
format for this management plan to help integrate the plan into the way
we manage better. The reporting structure developed over the past year
will continue and it was pleasing to see the level of progress that has
been made over the year on our previous plan. Because there has been a
new Council elected this year we will be completely reviewing the
objectives of the Council and its strategic direction. Unfortunately
the timing of the election alongside the budget and management plan
preparation schedule stopped us from carrying out this review this year.
Steady economic growth is important for the generation of employment
opportunities to reduce welfare dependency and for the widening of the
economic base for the provision of services. The issue of public safety
is seen as important both for the quality of life of our residents and
also for the future development of the Shire. We are looking forward
and aiming to build a community that we can all be proud of.
  David Aber General Manager |
