The 26 June 2008 Mercury's headline article about councils "on the brink" and " nearly two-thirds of Tasmania's 29 councils operated in the red last year" follows the release of a report by the Auditor General.  The ABC TV news the previous night showed a picture of Glenorchy Council at the same time as it mentioned some councils being in dire financial trouble.  This was unfortunate since the Auditor General's report didn't even include a specific report on Glenorchy! 

Nevertheless, tables in the report do include summary information on all councils including Glenorchy, and indicate that in 2006/07 the Council had an operating deficit of $5.7 million, which means we did "operate in the red".  This is correct, and it primarily represents the difference between our depreciation expense and the amount we spent on capital works.  The issue was taken up on talk back radio and it is worth clarifying what Glenorchy City Council has been doing to address the issue.

Council has spent a lot of time and effort over a number of years developing our asset management framework.  That process identified that we weren't spending enough on maintenance, renewal and replacement of infrastructure and in March 2006 Council therefore put in place it's current suite of strategic financial policies.  Among other things, these aim to systematically increase the amount of money we spend on infrastructure over a 6 year timeframe, with 2006/07 the first year of the strategy.  Our policies specifically address the deficit issue, and we have consistently kept our community informed of what we are doing and why through articles in the Glenorchy Gazette and discussions in community forums.

In other words:

• what the media is picking up on is not news to the Council;
• we've recognised it for some time;
• we've made sure that the community is aware of the issues and what we are doing about it;
• we have a clear 6 year strategy in place to deal with it through our financial policies; and
• our 2006/07, 2007/08 and 2008/09 budgets have been specifically crafted accordingly.

Building and Plumbing Drain Blockage Procedure

Building and Plumbing have added a procedure for sewerage and stormwater house connection drain blockages. It is available here.

Roads and Recreation

Roads and Recreation have developed a recreation plan for the Glenorchy City. The review plan is now available for comment. You can get the Demand and Consultation Findings plan here and the Strategies and Implementation plan here. Comments can be made directly to the Roads and Recreation department. Comments will be accepted up until August 1st, 2008.

Reform of Water and Sewerage Services

For a council perspective on the State Government's proposed reforms to water and sewerage services click here

Click here for more information