Dubbo Regional Council makes changes to the 2023/24 budget

With the council in a position of "do less with less", they worked on some changes to its 2023/24 budget.

To provide "good value for money" the councillors made four different amendments to the budget, highlighting the importance of resident's safety as well as trying to "balance the books".

Here are the four major changes made:

The council loses around $480,000 every year servicing Rainbow Cottage Childcare Centre.

To save the council some money, councillor Josh Black put forward an amendment to increase fees by 8.5 percent, starting January 1, 2024.

"We can't keep losing $480,000 a year on Rainbow Cottage, something has to be done," he said.

"We don't have to be the cheapest, we don't have to be the most expensive, but we do have to provide a decent return on taxpayers which doesn't lose us $480,000 on a childcare centre every year."

Councillor Shibli Chowdhury was against the amendment, saying that many families were struggling with money at the moment and couldn't afford the increase.

"This is a burden on residents and with this time frame that we are increasing the costs, I disagree with this motion," he said.

School children's safety has been put to the front of the line when it comes to important items in the council's 2023/24 budget.

Funding in the capital works program for footpath, curb and gutter works along Gipps and Brisbane Street has been re-allocated to create a footpath along Sheraton Road.

Councillor Matthew Wright said this particular footpath had been brought to his attention a number of times.

"It's no secret the condition of Sheraton Road extending south from the indoor sports centre all the way to the new Boundary Road roundabout is in horrendous condition and continues to deteriorate," he said.

"As South Lakes has continued to grow, so to have the number of children that are using that road as pedestrian access back up to schools and it certainly has become a safety issue."

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To deal with that, the council will be adding a footpath to make it safer for pedestrians and school children.

Cr Wright apologised to residents of Brisbane and Gipps Street who may have to wait another 12 months to have the footpath, curb and gutter works done.

Councillor Pam Wells agreed with Cr Wright, saying with the amount of children using the indoor sports stadium at night time, having a foot path was a safer option.

"Cars might not see them, so I would absolutely 100 percent support such a motion," she said.

Christmas time in Dubbo could become a little more merry if the council is able to find an extra $25,000 or $30,000 to decorate the CBD.

At the July ordinary council meeting, chief executive officer Murray Wood will bring a report back to the councillors identifying potential operational funds that could be relocated to fund increased levels of service for Christmas activation.

Councillor Chowdhury, who has been vocal about the need for more Christmas events in the region, said he had been contacted by concerned residents about Christmas activation.

"We have a lot of tourists come and it's not really up to market. Also a lot of residents go to nearby other big councils like Orange and Bathurst to spend a lot of money," he said.

"We need to capture this money in our region, because you can see lots of shops in the main street are closing down."

Councillor Wright said with the council's current financial pressures, finding another $25,000 for a project can be difficult.

He suggested to save on costs, they could have different businesses sponsor flags with different community member's faces on them.

"I think it's fantastic to have the community involved in Christmas and create that bit of atmosphere in our CBD," he said.

Council staff said they had been hesitant to engage corporate sponsors for festive promotion but it could be something they looked at in the future since it was an expensive exercise.

With residents continually voicing their concerns about Dubbo's lack of trees and the councils' lack of a Tree Preservation Order, councillor Josh Black has listened.

In his amendment to the 2023/24 budget, Cr Black asked that $100,000 be moved from the upkeep of urban entrances to the Street Tree Planting budget.

Originally $370,000 was allocated to the entrances but with $100,000 going towards the trees that will leave $270,000 for increased mowing services for Wellington and Dubbo Urban Area Entrances.

"We know that there's a need to plant more trees, but also just to replace the trees that die or get taken out around town or get run into by a car or something like that," Cr Black said.

"It'd be good to see some of those replaced and some of this money will go towards that."

Cr Chowdhury supported the motion saying that with Dubbo getting hotter, residents and tourists are always looking for shade.

"This is for the future generation, so we should look after the canopy and the trees," he said.

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