This document is our commitment to our community about what we will be doing over the term of this elected Council, and in particular the coming financial year.

The role of the delivery program is to take the goals in the Community Strategic Plan and tell the community the actions we will take towards these goals.

The delivery program is established following each Council election to cover the period of the elected Council.

The operational plan explains what we will be doing in the 2022-23 financial year to meet these commitments.

The document explains:

• Our service areas and details on the ongoing activities they deliver
• Major projects over the coming four years
• The actions planned for 2022-23
• Annual costs for each service area

Focus areas

The document also highlights areas of particular focus for Council over the four year period of the delivery program.

They are:

• Climate Change – focusing on improving environmental performance, reducing our carbon footprint and achieving our net zero emissions target by 2040.
• Customer service – undertaking a business transformation program to make it easier to do business with us and improve the experience of our customers. This will include improvements to technology to reduce the time taken to respond and resolve customer enquiries, use technology in the field and better manage assets.
• Development assessment – improving approval times and streamlining processes
• Economic development – developing a strategy to build and sustain economic growth
• Local and regional roads – expanding our local road program to focus on heavy patching local roads severely impacted by wet weather over the past 12 months, while continuing to deliver the $100 million regional roads program. Major projects include Thunderbolts Way Program, The Bucketts Way Program and the Cedar Party Creek Bridge replacement.

The draft Statement of Revenue Policy is included in the document.

This statement tells the community information about our income and expenditure, information about rating, charges and fees and information on our borrowings.

Draft budget

The draft budget for 2022-23 is prepared in sections. These sections are:

• General– which funds the majority of Council services across the MidCoast
• Water– outlines the income and expenditure for water services across the MidCoast
• Sewer – outlines the income and expenditure for sewer services across the MidCoast
• MidCoast Assist – outlines the income and expenditure of the ageing and disability service of MidCoast Council

The general fund shows a deficit for the 2022-23 year of $6.7 million. The other funds have a balanced budget.

We acknowledge that an ongoing deficit is not sustainable and we are developing a plan of action to work with our community about service expectations, cost and delivery with the aim of returning to an ongoing surplus.

Income

The 2022-23 budget shows an income of $310 million, which is made up of $167 million in rates and annual charges, $57 million in user charges and fees, $3 million in interest and investment revenues, $5 million in other revenues, $35 million in operating grants and contributions and $43 million for capital works through grants and contributions.

Expenditure

From this we are undertaking a capital works program of approximately $120 million which includes $60.5 million on roads, bridges, drainage and footpaths, $20 million on sewer infrastructure improvement and $30 million on water infrastructure improvement projects.

Council has allocated an additional amount of $7.5 million for 2022-23 to the roads budget to assist with repairing local roads through a heavy patching program.

Additional rate variation

Along with a number of other Councils, we are making an application for the annual increase for our rates to be 2.25% for the 2022-23 year, and this has been included in our budget.

This was prompted by the low-rate peg advised by IPART for all Councils in the State of 0.7%, adjusted with a population growth factor to 0.9% for the MidCoast.

As a result of a State-wide lobby by NSW Councils, the State Government has advised that Councils can apply to IPART to increase rates for next year back to the level they have been budgeting for – to a maximum of 2.5%. For more details see (media release link)

Annual charges

Annual charges for waste services are proposed to increase by 2% for 2022-23, and annual charges for water and sewer are proposed to increase by 3%.

Other fees and charges

The other fees and charges that apply to services have generally been increased by between 2.5% to 5% and are included in the document.

To view the combined Draft MidCoast Fees and Charges 2022-2023 document in full-screen in the interactive PDF viewer above, select the bracket icon at the bottom-right side the toolbar to enable full-screen.

If you are having trouble viewing the document in the interactive PDF viewer, you may also download the full Draft MidCoast Fees and Charges 2022-2023 as a PDF on this page.

The Resourcing Strategy is show our community how we plan on delivering the things we have outlined in the Delivery Program and Operational Plan.

Long Term Financial Plan 2022-2032

A long term financial plan is designed to show our financial position to the community and identify the financial opportunities and challenges we are facing.

Asset Management Strategy 2022-2032

This shows how our assets will support the services we provide to the community both now and over the next 10 years. We have $5 billion worth of assets including buildings, recreational facilities, roads and transport, stormwater drainage and water and sewer infrastructure.

Workforce Management Strategy 2022-2026

Making sure our workforce has the ability and capacity to deliver on the work we have planned is an important part of good planning.

This strategy looks at how we attract and retain suitably skilled and qualified staff, plan for the future and develop good leaders and managers along with a range of other outcomes.

Information and Communications Technology Strategic Plan 2022-2027

Improving the experience of our customers and making it easier to do business with us is the focus of this part of the resourcing strategy. It outlines how technology will be used to support our business transformation program and drive efficiency and improvement in our customer service.

To view the combined Draft MidCoast Resourcing Strategy document in full-screen in the interactive PDF viewer above, select the bracket icon at the bottom-right side the toolbar to enable full-screen.

If you are having trouble viewing the document in the interactive PDF viewer, you may also download the combined Draft MidCoast Resourcing Strategy as a PDF on this page.