hi everyone welcome to the council meeting
Wednesday 27th of July 2022. I declare
the meeting open at 6 33 pm
councillors will start with the opening
declaration
we the councillors of the City of
Ballarat declare that we'll carry out
our duties in the best interest of the
community
and through collective leadership will
maintain the highest standards of good
governance
i'd like to acknowledge the traditional
custodians of the land in which we meet
the Wada Wurrung people and recognize
their continuing connection to the land
and waterways and
pay much respect to elders past present
emerging and extend that respect to all
aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people a reminder everyone that
tonight's meeting is being broadcast on
the internet and a recording will be
published on council's website thank you
apologies for absence i have none uh in
that case i'll move on to disclosures of
interest counsellors have any counselor
Hargreaves
thank you mr mayor i'd like to declare a
conflict for item 8.7
okay thank you so we'll get you to step
out when we get to 8.7 but in the
meantime
as always councillors please let me know
if anything arises during the course of
the meeting uh item four matters arising
from the meeting uh meeting minutes
sorry uh councillors anything
nope in that case we'll move on to
confirmation the meeting minutes from
the 22nd of june do i have a mover
councillor Harris is moving councillor
Hudson is seconding uh any uh discussion
counsellors on this one
portugal vote all those in favor
that's carried
i have a
condolence motion that counselor Coates
would like to deliver a counsellor
yes thank you mr mayor and the
condolence motion is regarding Tess
Pearce so a young Ballarat woman who who
sadly
died by suicide just before her 30th
birthday
a few weeks ago and so
really wanted to send out heartfelt
condolences to
to all of Tessa's family her
her close family members um Sandy and
Blake her nephews and friends she was
incredibly well known and and loved
across the the city she was a staunch
disability and animal rights advocate
and also
did some incredible community work in
raising awareness about mental health as
well and some of you might be aware that
in 2019 despite incredible
physical challenges actually endeavoured
to walk around Lake Wendourie and raise
money for
mental health awareness and she she
completed that task and and raised um
three times more money than than
her her target so
really just wanted to um
highlight those achievements and and
really send out
heartfelt condolences to all those who
who knew and loved Tess and and really
remind anyone listening that um help and
support is available
through services like lifeline not
limited to that but um
really really highlights the importance
of mental health awareness and the
impact on our our community
oops thank you councillor Coats i
believe councillor Mcintosh would like
to second that
and i'm sorry over to you councilman i
think we can hear you now
yeah we'll need you to unmute i think
thank you and i apologize for that um i
was listening to the governance officer
i thought he was going to
unmute from that end
um
i i'd like to follow on from counselor
Coats's comments in regards to test
piece and and also support this
condolence motion
sending a very strong message a
heartfelt message of reflection uh care
and
memories i think to Tess's family and
and friends
many people uh saw her walk the lake
many people walked with her
and many people were entertained
by Tessa's beautiful outgoing
personality
she was certainly
a bubbly character uh laden with a great
deal of confidence
and also a great deal of understanding
of of the things that are challenging
people in our communities
to be such a strong advocate for Beyond
Blue and to do that significant walk of
the lake i think says such a lot about
Tess it's also about her ability to
fundraise and
support in areas that we all know need
more of a helping hand
tess's
neighbour was reported
talking about her memories
of Tess and
her disability
advocacy and her message is about being
kind to everyone
because you never know what somebody
else might be experiencing at any
particular time when you walk past them
and i just thought that was an
outstanding comment for someone to make
and and a really beautiful message about
who tess was and so i just like to
certainly support the condolence motion
and pass our thoughts on to Tessa's
family and friends
thank you for adding to that council
Macintosh
uh any other council wishing to speak to
it as well
well thank you again to councillor
coates and to council macintosh for
speaking to that condolence motion i'll
put that to a vote that we accept that
that motion
and
thank you that's that's
carried uh we now move on to public
question time which will start at 6 39
pm
uh now councillors we have i think
10 individuals
[Music]
who have questions and one of those is
attending so i might actually go to that
person first
uh and then we can come back to the ones
that have arrived uh in writing uh
do we have um
is it amy murphy uh present as well
welcome emmy
um i'd just like to ask um
the trial lights were only cleaned of
their spider webs two weeks ago which
have already grown back
my question is how will this cleaning be
carried out
without mechanically impacting the tree
protection zones as heritage victoria's
permit and how often will it have to
happen
and what was the cost and
has this cost
by how many
number of cleans per year
being factored into the annual
maintenance allocation
thank you for that question i'll direct
it through mr ceo to uh director
weatherall thank you
thank you mr marin thank you for the
question
so
certainly
the operating and maintenance costs of
the lights have been considered
we
are they were cleaned recently
and we are still working
out not knowing
you know how how active spiders are
how regularly we need to clean the
lights so we had at this
previously look to clean them annually
but consider that they will need
more regular cleaning
i also understand that insects are
seasonal so we don't foresee that
needing to be a monthly clean it will be
based on
um
experience
um we will
be needing um equipment to help us with
the cleaning
um as you would likely be aware
though we already have a number of
vehicles that do utilize the inside
the inside area of um the the track in
between the the lake and the track
um in with vehicles that um are used to
maintain the area we have a number of
events as well so we have heavy vehicles
that do utilize and have to access those
areas already
so we don't see that there will be
a large change in having to use a cherry
picker type vehicle to access the lights
to clean them
saying that we are very aware of the
need to avoid tree protection zones and
we will create specific and as we do
already when there's events on specific
access
points so we don't have vehicles
driving over
and compacting the ground
thank you thank you
and did you have a second question as
well you'd like to ask i do thank you
thanks um
why are the extra costs um being claimed
not coming out of the project
contingency budget of thirty three
hundred thousand dollars
which should leave only an extra seventy
thousand dollars required so what has
happened to the contingency budget
budget in the project
thank you again i'll go through ceo
teams
director weatherwell thank you thank you
mr marin thank you again for the
question
so every construction project has a
contingency
and especially for a construction
program
projects which are digging into the
ground where there are even in light of
geotechnical reports
and other investigative work that is
required to inform the design there are
is is the need to have a contingency
amount available which is generally
about 10 to 15 percent of the whole
contract price
so knowing that we have the construction
period of the lights forthcoming we need
to
can
keep that 300 000 for the construction
period
the 370 000 that we are
suggesting
is approved this evening does take into
account the contractor cost increase of
about 308 thousand
plus we have experienced additional
costs in project management plus in
heritage
costs that weren't foreseen because
there have been extra requirements put
on the need to
um through the interim protection order
we had to do a second heritage
assessment
and
we've had extra time spent by our
project manager
that wasn't foreseen so there's costs
that we have incurred and there are
future costs that we will incur that we
know we'd really um
again have to wait until we start
construction to understand what those
costs might be but the 10 to 15 is very
standard
thank you very much
thanks for taking those questions uh now
as i said i think there's still nine
more which we'll just work our way
through in order of receipt uh in that
case so i have then the uh the next
oh my apologies sorry um and sorry
cancel mcintosh um
you might need to even give me a
physical wave i apologize for that just
trying to sort of monitor multiple
screens but i'll go to you now sorry
councilman mcintosh sorry i missed you
thanks very much mr mayor throw you to
the director i just wanted to follow on
with two questions
one was around the contingency costs
and that extra 300 000 that's coming in
and why we wouldn't use that funding
that i think that's how i
um
interpreted the question of the
presenter and also the other one was
specifically around the maintenance
costs the operation and maintenance
costs don't think we've ever been i know
these questions have been asked before
but i don't recall there being ever a
figure given so i'm just wondering if we
can have an estimate please
there's some further clarification
around the contingency cost and why we
wouldn't use that 300 that we have there
and
around a more solid um indication of
maintenance and operations costs
okay so both of those to some degree
were already answered by the director
but i might just look to the director
and see if she has anything further to
add
a dollar figure thank you mr marion
thank you councillor mcintosh for the
question so yeah as i explained just
just now we need a contingency during
the construction period we did have um
we have always allocated that that money
um and we haven't reached the
construction period yet so we do need to
retain the 300 000
knowing that we'll we will come across
circumstances where we need to
um
approve variations based on
ground conditions um
other other things that may
impact on this project as happens in in
a lot of
construction projects in terms of
maintenance costs um
as i explained also
it's that we are you know really just
trying to understand how often we need
to maintain and sorry to clean the
lights
we have estimated based on the 12
existing lights that we are cleaning
already that perhaps around thirty to
fifty thousand dollars a year would be
required and that's staff time and
that's equipment higher um
but every asset we own has a maintenance
cost there would not be one asset in the
city that we don't have
a cost associated with running so for
that that is really just if we want to
build assets we have to
budget for the the ongoing operating and
maintenance costs associated with those
assets
thank you
uh thanks director uh in that case i'll
move on to the uh the first of our
additional written questions uh from
philippe fernandez
uh which will be which will be read out
sorry
thank you and three mr mayor the
question is as follows
can you please speak to the status of
the implementation for the 2019 wintery
station master plan the plans developed
at the south side of the station with a
forecourt bus interchange in south side
station access we're a very steep very
positive step
in making the area pedestrian friendly
windery station is an important access
point for people coming to visit the
ballarats gardens precinct and this plan
should be implemented so the station's
access and surround area matches the
importance of this function ballarat
only has two train stations let's not
forget about one of them
uh thanks for the question uh through
ceo
to director robertson thank you through
you mr mayor and thank you for the
question um mr fernandez um wintry
station is an incredibly important part
of the city and city of ballarat we're
pleased to lead the preparation of the
master plan in 2019
when implemented the vision plans and
actions in the plan will all make a
significant contribution to the local
wendry and lake wendary communities as
well as ballarat and the region more
broadly the land at the station
transport infrastructure services and
other elements related to the station
precinct are all owned and managed by
the victorian government whilst council
plays the role of to add advocate for
the implementation of the vision
for the site we remain actively engaged
in advocating to state government for
further investment into this precinct
thank you
thanks director uh
and i think the next one is from barbara
clark
thank you and three mr mayor i actually
have two questions that are identical
one from barbara clarke and one from
michael and so i'll just read that out
i recently read the article on the
cosplay outs of the lake lighting
project and concerned by this project
blowout being absorbed into council
budget as carryover in addition to this
unplanned capital expense request i
would like to submit a question to
council clarify when the ongoing what
the ongoing operational expense is
as we have recently seen the two sample
poles were recently cleaned due to
insect activity providing this new
ongoing service across all 255 poles as
well as ongoing maintenance will have
extra cost of impact on the existing
opex budgets
i would like to have these additional
operational expenses cost articulated
for full transparency
uh so just i guess the office is already
partly identified a response to that
question
in an earlier question but i might just
check again through to director whether
or not there's anything additional you'd
like to add so you've
answered an earlier question and
councilor mctosh's follow-up
you mr mayor and i think the only thing
to add is that the maintenance and
repairs will be completed in accordance
with with manufacturers guidelines and
warranties
um
and
so and it is a bit of a learning
experience for us but we have some
guidance in that regards we won't be
certainly won't be seeking to over clean
or underclean it is it is in accordance
with the guidelines and warranties in
place i might just follow up myself do
we normally have budgets to clean spider
webs
we normally yes we have budgets to
maintain all of our assets
so yeah that it is a requirement of
keeping our assets in good good order
okay thank you
the next question is fairly similar
from stuart kelly
thank you and through mr mayor the
question is as follows my questions
relate to the recent cleaning of dead
insects and spider webs from the two
trial lights at lake windering
question one can i get a description of
the technique used in cleaning these
lights particularly any measures taken
to ensure that vehicles used did not
cause soil compaction in root zones to
the detriment of nearby trees
and the second question is based upon
the cost involved in this recent
cleaning of two lights what is the
estimated ongoing annual cost of such
necessarily regular cleaning of all 225
of the proposed lights
i think i might take that one as
answered if everyone's comfortable but
counts already do you have anything
mr mayor just given the repetitive
nature of the the questions and the
answers
i wonder whether and given counsellors
have received all these unless any
particular counsellor has a desire to
sit here and listen to them all i'm
wondering whether they all have to
actually read out and then responded to
individually given they are documented
yep no worries uh
so councillors technically speaking we
have until 709 for question time
which is another
18 minutes or something uh
we will do our best to try to group them
i think that might be the way so
normally we do try to group the
questions as they come in but quite a
lot came through very late in the day
today about literally at 4 30. so it's
been very hard to group the themes uh
we'll do our best to read ahead and try
to
move on from the spider web ones i think
and get to some of the other key
elements that people are keen to
question on uh i i'm hoping we can
address your concern though through the
next one perhaps accounts already which
is uh from daniel murphy where i think
it's on on a
related but different topic
thank you and three mr mayor the
questions are as follows they requested
370 000 for the project that is being
charged the rate pays is this the final
increase or will there be further costs
incurred by rate payers before
completion
the second question is standard
procurement procedures normally dictate
that an increase of a project's cost
over 10 percent prior to commencement
automatically requires a retender as the
increase of 370 thousand dollars is well
over that margin at what point will the
tender be re-advertised
okay thank you um again friends to see
you i think to direct your weather all
cheers
thank you mr merritt thank you for the
question
the additionally requested 370 000 is
what is currently understood to be the
increased cost of completing this
project
uh in regard regards to procurement
procedures council's procurement policy
does not have any requirements regarding
re-advertising when the budget is
exceeding by greater than 10 percent oh
sorry is exceeded by greater than 10
percent council's procurement policy
requires the following
in circumstances where the cost of the
variances exceeds the allocated project
budget approval must be sought from the
initial approver prior to works
proceeding
the provision of this report to cancel
is in line with that requirement
thank you
thanks director i might ask a follow-up
myself to mr ceo if that's okay um so
mr ceo you were quoted in the uh the the
courier this week um
noting i think that uh that
there
then the next tender i think we're
trying to figure out your exact words
where the next tender uh was still
greater than uh than the proposed
increase this one but can i get um some
further clarification so counselors are
aware of the tender amounts that came in
and now that information is usually
confidential
so while counselors are aware of all the
submissions that came in during that
tenure process
we might need the the ceo to to give us
some
more public articulation as to
whether it would be appropriate to go
out to retender see you
through you mr mayor and thank you for
that that question so the
increased proposed increased cost for
the lake lighting project
when added to the
original tender price that council
approved is still well under the second
place tenderer that was assessed in the
original tender process so based on our
value for money calculation that we do
on all tenders uh it was deemed that
this tender was still value for money
with the increased cost therefore
officers are putting it to council for
consideration around the increased cost
okay thank you mr ceo uh we'll keep on
uh working our way through i'm sorry
council harris
um
uh
thank you mr look it's only just uh i
guess the follow-up questions is and i
think the the tenure that the question
is uh you know what level would you
re-tender you know
and it could you can imagine happening i
mean you could to have a tender for some
um earth work and well that was not a
good example if you had something where
the it so happens that um
the consequent cost to council is two or
three times what it was i follow what
you mean as much as it was underneath
what we'd set aside um and the the
indications with the only other
tenderers at that point and at that
juncture and around that cost
was
substantially more but um so i guess
what i'm saying is that council officers
are putting to us this is still a value
for money
proposition and under under that
auspicious and not suggesting a go to
retender
uh yeah mr ceo just answer that question
so through you mr mayor and thank you
councillor harris for that question
you're exactly right so the officers
have done an assessment based on the new
price uh given that the new price is
still lower than the second tendered
price in the original tender process
following the same value for money
assessment that was undertaken when the
original tender was brought to council
officers genuinely believe that this is
still value for money
your question around at what point does
that assessment not uh become
the uh you know the way forward
should the new price uh
take it significantly above the second
tenure then you would probably struggle
to be able to demonstrate value for
money and we would probably need to go
back out to out to tender
okay thanks mr ceo um
oh sorry councillor mcintosh
uh thanks very much uh mr mayor i'm just
wondering if i could go back through you
to the ceo
and just us or maybe even to mr
montgomery as the governance officer
what is the process what is the process
when we're looking at tenders in
situations like this is there a
guideline there for us that we are
supposed to follow um if if something
comes back to us over that ten percent
uh so i think director weatherall partly
answered that in terms of their not
necessarily being that level of guidance
but again i'll go to mr ceo to answer
your question cancel macintosh thank you
through through you mr mayor the the
procurement policy doesn't provide uh
i suppose strict interpretation of that
what the procurement policy says if uh
the price goes 10
above the allocated budget then we need
to bring it back to council because
officers don't have the delegated
authority to allocate additional budget
to it so the assessment of the increased
price was done
based on the same methodology that was
used for the original tender and given
that the price of this revised
uh
tender was
less than
the second place tenderer from the
original tender
it was deemed that it was still value
for money given it was value for money
when it was put to council the first
time
thank you
okay thank you mr ceo um now i might
also just uh just ask my own sort of
follow-ups and this is going to be no
doubt a theme for tonight
um
the
the cost additional cost being sought i
guess is 308 thousand dollars
by the uh the contractor
now
is it correct that that was issued that
the initial quote was put in back in
december last year after the tender
process just want to get a sense of time
frames involved here
through you mr mayor uh that is that is
correct so the original tender process
uh
concluded in december
last year
obviously some
what's that now let's say seven seven
months later
it's not surprising that that cost has
escalated since december last year and i
actually
did a little a little bit of research
assuming that i might
get a question along those lines
the master builders association recently
released
a price increase
matrix to give some indications of price
increases still products 48.9
increase over recent time it is not
surprising
that the cost has gone up given the
significant inflationary pressures that
we're all experiencing in all forms of
our lives and work lives
okay so i'm just on the calculator now i
take that as 307 000 divided by seven
months that's about forty three forty
four thousand dollars a month escalation
okay
um
let's
keep on moving on in that case for some
additional questions next one's from
scott gallup to be read out
thank you and three mr mayor the
question is as follows
how does the installation of 225 lights
fit in with the council's
environmentally sustainable development
policy and the second question is with
the p-class soil and many larger holes
required and possible soil issues does
the increase in the contractor's price
include any amounts for the additional
excavation and the supply of extra
concrete for these foundations
uh thanks mr gallop i'll go through mr
ceo too director weather again
thank you mr marin thank you mr gallup
for the question
um the new environmentally sustainable
design policy focuses on focuses on
enhancing current and future communities
by making homes and workplaces more
sustainable and livable therefore the
esd policy does not apply to open space
such as lake windery however the lights
have been
the design for the lights has been made
in compliance with the city of
ballarat's energy efficient public
lighting policy 2009
which states that public lighting
installations must utilize energy
efficient led lighting and consider the
relevant sections of the australian
standards
the selected fitting
of the lights complies to this standard
and the energy efficient led lighting
directive
it's worth noting also that the city of
ballarat purchases 100 renewable energy
for all operations including lighting
through a power purchase agreement
the second part of the question
i'll answer that so the variable soil
conditions found including
classification p
are not unexpected given the large
distances and spread of sites
these soil conditions are found
throughout the entire municipality
and this is standard practice for any
city of ballarat infrastructure project
a geotechnical report is commissioned to
inform the technical specification and
foundation details for the project
when it comes to the site-by-site
footing depths for the polls this is
determined by the contractor based on
the conditions on site and the poll
manufacturer's footing details and is
then tabled with the city of ballarat
site superintendent for review in line
with the project specification and all
statutory authority requirements
the removal of any contaminated soil if
found on site will be assessed on a
case-by-case basis as a latent condition
hence the need for contingency
as an example and is a standard practice
by the city of ballarat any such claims
would be submitted by the contractor to
council's project superintendent for
review the allocation of a construction
contingency for the project which occurs
on council's major infrastructure
projects is used to manage such latent
conditions
and therefore removal as necessary thank
you
thanks uh director um
we our next question is from jason cross
thank you and three mr mayor the
question is as follows why why was the
contract not signed with a successful
tenderer after it was approved that the
ceo will have it signed and has this
failure to sign for the last six months
expose the rate payers to cost increases
is that one for the ceo i think mr ceo
thank you
through you mr mayor and uh thank you
mr gross for that that question
a decision was made not to sign the
contract after council had awarded the
contract because the interim protection
order had been placed on a portion of
the lake
and the interim protection order
required a heritage permit to be
applied for and considered by heritage
victoria
it was deemed prudent
financial management prudent project
management not to sign up to a contract
when we did not know whether that
contract could actually progress given
that we're waiting for heritage victoria
to make a determination on the permit
a letter was sent to the tenderer
informing them of council's decision and
informing them of the need to wait to
sign the contract pending the outcome of
the heritage permit and we believe that
is prudent management of the contract
uh thanks mr ceo there's a second uh
question as well thank you and through
mr mayor the question is as follows i
would like to ask the councillors to
remove their counsellor hats for one
moment and put themselves as a rate
player and ask yourselves
is it the time that council should
concede that it might possibly be wrong
with the choice of lighting particularly
now with the cost blowouts and prior to
any holes being dug
i'm sure how we answer this question
because i know that councillors will be
speaking a bit to this one when the item
comes up itself um does any accounts i
wish to speak to it i mean again i will
have some pretty strong points i'm keen
to make when the item comes up but
there'll be a point of debate i guess
when the item is heard it's one of the
first items
uh but is there any council that would
like to address at this point though
prior
okay all right well i think hopefully mr
gross you're happy with um you'll hear a
fair bit of debate i'm sure once once we
get to that item which will i think
address the question question you're
after anyway
uh
we'll kick on now to on uh
we've got uh heather lewis as well has a
question thank you
thank you and through you mr mayor the
question is as follows
has ongoing costs of maintenance being
assessed with other options such as
lighting at ground level for example
cleaning repairs replacements
impact on wildlife such as possums
living in trees and coming out to feed
after dusk and feeding times will alter
for those affected particularly in
winter
second question part was how much
investigation was done on the impact on
wildlife using different options of
light lighting
uh again i think mr c three mississippi
director whether or not
thank you mr mayor and thank you miss
lewis for the question
um
so in terms of we have already covered
tonight the the cost of of uh
maintenance and cleaning
we haven't assessed these with other
options such as lighting at ground level
and the reason for that is that our
heritage permits um approved the
construction of pole mounted lights so
and they were in alignment with their
australian standard so we haven't done
an assessment on the comparison of
maintenance
costs
in regards to the different types of
lighting that have been considered
in-ground lighting has been considered
and subsequently not supported because
they do not meet the australian
standards for public lighting of
pathways they spill light upwards and
into tree canopies rather than downwards
and onto the path
they represent a significant maintenance
burden given how accessible the lights
are would be to damage and vandalism
and these sort of lights have not been
supported in the lake windering master
plan which specifically recommends
overhead pole mounted lighting
in regards to the impact on wildlife
as part of the design process council
engaged biosis to undertake an
independent biodiversity impact
assessment
this has been an important consideration
throughout the process and the lights
have been chosen for their ability to
limit avoid spill light spill in order
to to limit emitting light where it was
not where it is not required
choosing lights that are programmable
with the ability to be readily changed
throughout the year is also a key factor
the light spill and its effect on
wildlife have been considered during the
design process
bollard level lighting in ground
lighting have sideways and upwards light
spill that doesn't meet the relevant
australian standards and also creates
glare issues for both users and also for
wildlife thank you
thank you director
now councillors i'm just conscious we're
about one minute away from ending
question time but council macintosh
just in regards to the in-ground
lighting and director weatherill talked
about the upward
light spill question through you mr
mayor
i know that we've discussed this in the
past but to my knowledge there hasn't
been the cross path illumination
consideration of that type of lighting
you just mentioned before director
weather all about the light spill but
that particular type of light
controls it
i'm just wondering when when were they
considered
i think the directors already answered
that question that they were not
considered
because it wasn't part of the agreed
scope but again direct do you want to
add anything further to that
no really just it comes back to meeting
the australian standards and the focus
being on
the requirement to
meet safety standards
and manage risk that may well be uh
associated with
um having lights that don't meet an
australian standard
and having them to
manage any insurance or other claims
and through you mr mayor to follow on
from that the australian standards i
don't recall us
anywhere in any of our documents
guidelines or chamber votes um deciding
to follow australian standards
uh councillor mcintosh the advocacy
documents that i think you yourself as
mayor of the time were using to promote
to opposition and government with a paul
mounted lights which reflected the
lake wenderry master plan which on
numerous occasion talks about paul
mounted lines
that was then put forward as the uh the
application to government and as a
result the response back from government
has been we will fund pole mounted lines
as you've requested
uh so as a result council officers
haven't investigated any further it was
the australian standards question that i
asked yesterday but i i'll take that as
already answered at a previous meeting
we've already answered the previous
meetings
um we're now at the end of public
question time uh councillors can i just
check if uh you'd like to extend that
bonnie
extend that question time at all
um i'm happy to if there's someone else
to second it i think that
so council macintosh has moved an
extension to question time by half an
hour which is our standard uh anyone
wishing to second that motion
in that case it's lapsed and we'll end
question time so councillors there were
two questions that were not answered as
part of that that we've provided in
writing uh so you'll have those
questions available counsellors and um
uh
we'll do our best to respond uh via
governance to those people but i i
suspect that those individuals have
asked questions and logged additional
questions with us we'll have those
questions answered anyway as part of
tonight's um
no doubt lengthy item that which when it
comes up comes up shortly
in that case as i say drawing question
time to an end at well 7 11 i guess
we'll now move on to the chief
executive's office chief executive
officer report item seven um mr ceo is
anything you wish to add to that
through you mr mayor i'm happy to take
the report as as written um given um a
bit on the agenda tonight but certainly
happy to take any questions that any
counsellors would like to ask me uh
regarding my report
thank you no counselor coats um happy to
move all right and do i have a second
counselor eddie's seconding uh
counselors to wish to speak to it
any other council wishing to speak to
the item
i'll put it to a vote in that case all
in favor
thank you that's carried we move now on
to the first of the officers reports
item 8.1 the lake wender and victoria
park link lighting project
now before we get into this and other
items tonight i just want to note we do
have a lot of submissions
logged
i think there are 29 of which 25 are
unique uh four are the same submissions
so they'll be they'll be read together
uh now we have in our meeting rules um
to give everyone a fair opportunity a
requirement for three minutes to keep to
our submissions the chair may give
discretion for an additional two minutes
or a total of five
but again given there's 25 at least to
get through at this stage
i'm going to keep it to three minutes um
sorry everyone so just make sure that
we're being fair to get through that
that in its own right will be about an
hour an hour in a bit to get through
those so we'll uh we'll start that
process now and work our way through
with with the first of those 25
submissions to be read out i think the
first one is from chantal kevin
thank you and three mr mayor the
question is of representation is as
follows as a resident of ballarat i'm
not not happy with the huge price
increase of the contract and i do not
agree with ballarat city council
agreeing to the price increase for the
proposed lake rendering lighting project
thank you next one is from dawn smith
as a resident ratepayer i want to
express my opposition to an increase in
the cost of lighting to the lake area
the lights in the in their current
design are ugly and unnecessary so many
more appropriate options are available
to find that the council will now impose
additional costs on our community is
profoundly insulting council needs to be
more consultative and transparent
thank you and faye clark
has it
so yeah we'll try to slow that slide
down a little bit thanks thanks mr
montgomery
as a resident of ballarat i'm not happy
with the huge price increase of the
contract and i do not agree with the
ballot city council agreeing to the
price increase for the proposed lake
windering lighting project i object to
the proposed lights and believe you
could do more to explore more
environmentally friendly lighting
options
thank you
next one from deb wakefield
as a long-term resident of ballarat i'm
most concerned and do not agree with the
council agreeing with the huge price
increase in lighting for lake windering
there has been no transparency
with the residents of ballarat regarding
the increased costs of proposed lights i
strongly believe this money could be
spent elsewhere fixing unsafe roads
footpaths please listen to concerns of
ballarat residents
thank you and next one's susan mcneese
as a resident of ballarat i'm not happy
with the huge price increase of the
contract and i do not agree with
ballarat city council agreeing to the
price increase for the proposed lake
windering lighting project
thank you and denise
boyco
i believe that the cost of the contract
for the proposed lighting of lake
rendering has had a significant price
increase as a resident i am decidedly
against the ballarat city council
approving this additional payment along
with ongoing unspecified maintenance
costs to be paid by us ballarat
ratepayers can also draw your attention
to a program aired 11 a.m on the 25th of
july 2020 on abc radio melbourne
pointing out the dangers to women of
overlit exercise areas as an older woman
who walks around the lake when array at
6am each day i'm extremely apprehensive
about the proposal to spotlight the
steve monaghani track
perhaps at this stage with so much
additional information and consequent
reservations of ratepayers a further and
more comprehensive survey of residents
should be undertaken before any more of
our money is committed to this wasteful
project
thank you uh mary lange
i would like to register my opposition
to spending so much of our rates money
on the unnecessary lighting around lake
windering many ballarat residents are
already having trouble paying our rates
and wasting money on something like this
project will only benefit a handful of
people is getting beyond the joke
projects which benefit the majority of
residents should be the main spending
carried out by council as well as
ensuring the infrastructure of our town
is kept at its peak best i understand we
need to pay to keep our wonderful town
running at its best but please ensure it
is only spent on what needs doing not
what a minority might be pushing for
the next one's from ian clarke i wish to
lodge a formal objection i recently read
the article on the cost blowouts and the
light lighting project and am concerned
by this project blowout being absorbed
in our capital budget as carryover
in addition to this plan unplanned
capital expense request
as we have recently seen the two sample
polls were recently cleaned due to
insect activity providing this new
ongoing services across all 255 poles as
well as ongoing maintenance will have
extra costs that will impact on the
existing operational expenditure budgets
as well as providing articulation
of the annual maintenance program and
detailed cost analysis
thank you and next one for christine
titheridge as a resident of ballarat i'm
not happy with the huge price increase
of the contract and i do not agree with
ballarat city council agreeing to the
price increase for the proposed lake
wenderry lighting project thank you i
think we may actually have our next
person in attendance tonight uh do we
have fiona ludbrook present tonight
okay in that case we might in the case
read out fiona's submission
dear city ballarat councillors i right
to state my objection to any increased
funding for the lake wondering lighting
project i note that as yet no
environmental impact study has been
undertaken and urged the ballarat city
council to halt all such funding and
work until a full environmental impact
study is undertaken by the city that
would embrace
the effects of extended light upon all
species of insects birds marsupials and
fish that are part of this ecosystem
the impact impacts upon subsoil
excavation and mycorrhizal life that
connect and support the existing trees
and effects of its disruption should
steel and concrete impact such subsoil
connections
undertaking account of the concentration
of the little green lake in six insects
that all swarm to these lights in summer
essentially rendering the monogety track
unsealable unusable
i further urge city of ballarat councils
to establish links and consultations
with the dark skies network to inform
the city's current and future lighting
in ways that make the minimal
environmental impact on indigenous
species and all residents and visitors
who value dark skies at night as much as
sunlight by day
thank you
next mission is from david hayward
i'm concerned about the proposed issue
of lighting around the lake i struggle
to see why lighting is needed it seems
to be a big expense for something that
brings no benefit it creates light
pollution and is certainly an intrusion
on the eye i suspect that it will have a
detrimental effect on any wildlife i'm
unable to be at the council meeting on
this matter tomorrow evening and as i'm
currently hospitalizing in st john's my
late wife councillor larell senior was
the last council representing lakewood
she passed away in 1998 and lee had a
real passion for lake um ward and so do
i
thanks david uh our next submission is
from bruce crawford representing the
barrett residence rate players
association
this summation is relating to lakewood
lighting project our group the ballarat
residents and ratepayers association
discussed this issue at our monday night
meeting and a motion was passed to write
this submission to express our
disapproval at the increasing cost of
the lighting many many residents are
already struggling to pay their rates
with a six point four percent rate
increase it's fiscally irresponsible and
is extremely extravagant to increase the
lighting costs from the tenders original
price of 2.2 million to a total now of
3.17 million for a project that very few
will use
a rhetorical question is how many more
increases will there be as the costs are
bound to continue to rise and ballot
city council cannot afford to just keep
saying yes to every cost blower for what
it appears to be on nearly every council
project when will we hear the council
say no we cannot afford to continue to
paying that cost
increase
thank you next one is from stuart kelly
let's have a drink thank you
i wish to object to council approving
increases in the contract price of the
contract and the additional expenses
totaling 370 dollars lake windering
master plan adopted by council in
november 2017 not 2015 as in the agenda
originally costed this project at 1.5
million this has now grown to well over
double with no guarantee that further
amounts won't be required due to
unexpected conditions once installation
commences
the government grant appears fixed at
2.5 million however it seems the
ratepayers contribution is considered to
be open ended now more than doubling
from hundred hundred thousand dollars to
the requested six hundred seventy
thousand dollars note that this amount
still does not include ongoing
maintenance and power costs
at no stage has there been any
justification of this expensive project
on the basis of how many current or
potential future users of the track
might conceivably be benefited from this
lighting project
a project to cost well over 3.2 million
dollars is getting done it seems without
any analysis of the potential usage of
the track nor or any cost benefit
analysis for the expenditure
surely at some stage even the most
ardent supporter of this project must
ask is this really proper value for
money
thanks mr kelly um we can just check our
next person may be present suzanne
parker
do we have susan present tonight
oh so susan do you want us to read out
your presentation okay have you
frustrated it no worries in case we'll
read out suzanne's um presentation thank
you thank you mr mayor the presentation
is as follows i've been against the
lighting of the lake from the start
especially the use of all tower lights
as a resident and rate payer of ballarat
i'm not happy with the huge price
increase of the contract and i do not
agree with ballot city council agreeing
to the price increase for the proposed
lake windering lighting project the
long-term maintenance costs will be an
ongoing burden on the council budget
stopping funds being spent on more
appropriate broader community needs it
is important that the council listens to
the views of their community and makes
well-informed decisions for the
long-term benefit of our city
thanks suzanne next one is from jenny
horner
i would like to ask the lights on polls
for lake winderray be scrapped and
change for the low lighting designs if
you must have any light at all i cannot
believe on this day and sorry in this
day and age the ignorance of your plan
when it has been pointed out by many
authorities that the lighting will be
detrimental to the environment and those
that live there as in animals and
insects not to mention the trees
it's ludicrous
please be caring about environment if
you go ahead knowing what you have been
informed on it is pure vandalism of our
lake precinct
thank you and an exhibition from cheryl
mclaughlin could i check cheryl is
general president
in that case we'll read it out
as a resident and rate player of
ballarat i object to the increase in the
cost of the lake lighting surely a
better solution to this proposed
lighting can be found and installed with
less impact on the environment and
surrounds
thank you and we have now marian robbins
i recently read the article on the cost
blowouts of the lake lighting project
and i am concerned by this project
blowout being absorbed into our council
budget as a carryover in addition to
this unplanned capital expense request i
would like to submit a question to
council clarifying
the operational expense as we've
recently seen the two example polls were
recently cleaned due to insect activity
providing 250
sorry this new ongoing service across
all 255 poles as well as ongoing
maintenance will have extra costs that
impact on the existing operating space
costs articulated for full transparency
okay thank you um and we have now leanne
and mark scott
we ask that as our elected
representatives you vote to reject the
request for an additional 370 000
council contribution for this project on
the following grounds who actually
supports this project as rate payers we
have not seen or heard of any advocacy
or support for this proposal this is
evidenced by the recent heritage
victoria permit applications
when 109 submissions were received the
ballarat city council being the only
submission in favor 108 against
it would be more appropriate to spend
this large sum of money on other
infrastructure road maintenance parks
aged care services
the need to protect the environment
animals and trees that make lake
windering so special
it was our forefathers that left the
citizens of ballarat the legacy of lake
windering please show respect to those
that came before us
lake winderie is the jewel in ballarat's
crown
people come to enjoy what it is
imagine never again being able to enjoy
the beautiful sunrises and sunsets over
the lake lighting will extinguish this
forever
the risk of this project far outweigh
the benefits damaging to aging damage to
aging trees environment
impacts on the wildlife that call the
lake home light pollution
rejecting this proposal will afford the
city of ballarat the opportunity to
reassess this project and question
whether this is the desire of the
majority of ratepayers or just a few
with their own agendas is this for the
betterment of ballarat as a whole please
don't let this become another council
failing
thank you
next one is from mr peter karabik uh mr
terrific
president to speak thank you
welcome thank you mayor thank you ceo
and councillors um i'm just wondering
how council can justify considering the
variation in the tender when the whole
community community from business to
residential is under extreme financial
pressure and many businesses will have
to find hundreds of extra dollars in
rates
um
with the lake lighting following its
election commitment the state government
is contributing two and a half million
to the project with council chipping in
300 and now the contractor is asking for
another 370 000
plus there's been another 31 771 paid to
heritage victoria
yesterday we had a coffee at a cafe
whose rates are five thousand dollars
per annum and they don't even have a bin
as it's not allocated but their rates
are set to rise three hundred and twenty
dollars with a six point four percent
rise that's due to come
with the wintery west recreation reserve
um
one of the spokesmans from the city of
ballarat has said we have five hundred
thousand dollars worth of contingency um
because the the budget has blown by two
million dollars
and that spokesman went on to say
that the whole budget only needs to go
up by 1.5 million
only 1.5 million is that me or is the
language wrong
the steinfeld seinfeld street shed
bicycle and walking path the city spent
over 615 thousand dollars on a 500 meter
long shared pedestrian cycling path
which is in a secluded and dangerous
area and i've lived in this area for 25
years and women never walk in the area
alone
interestingly interestingly the roads or
the department of transport could have
converted this street into a safe
cycling street for the minuscule sum of
thirty five thousand four hundred
dollars
so there's just three projects here i've
gone over budget lake lighting four
hundred thousand dollars
wintry west recreation reserve two
million dollars and the steinfeld street
pathway a whopping 579 600 could have
been saved that's just under three
million dollars could we save due
diligence am i wrong
uh thanks kerovic do you have any
questions for mr karevik at all
um
no
thank you uh our next uh presentation in
that case is or sorry submission is from
uh penelope greenslade i don't think
penny's here
no so we'll read out um dr greenslade's
um submission thank you
thank you and three mr bear
the presentation is as follows
in view
of the unexpected and unwelcome
increasing costs of lake windering
lighting as the foreshadowed by the
proposed tenderer with the excess to be
paid by the ratepayers i suggest in fact
urge the council to contract
an independent group of social
scientists to set up an office in
ballarat to survey public i.e ratepayers
opinions on the need and type of lights
planned for the path around lake windery
this survey office should be established
for six months and a report written on
the on the results it should follow it
should following the example of the
survey established in the civic hall on
the opinion and need to retain the hall
uh thanks um dr greenslade uh next
mission is from uh robin cash
i would like to endorse the submission
made by marion robbins
along with the other reasons put forward
by many people objecting to the proposed
lake lighting project i'd like to
emphasize this question why do we need a
large number of lights on very tall
poles that will cast a very bright and
far-reaching circles all night for the
dubious benefit of a slick few
i propose that we prevent our lake from
looking like a sports ground day and
night
let us make the compromise and design
and install a low impact and less
expensive lighting solution lake
winderie is ballarat's most beautiful
asset and should be preserved at all
costs
thanks for that um our next mission is
from alex angus
as a resident of ballarat i'm writing to
object to any increase in funding to the
lake wondering liking lighting project
furthermore i urge ballarat city council
to halt all funding and work until a
survey of all ballarat residents is
carried out to gauge attitudes to this
planned project i'm alarmed that such a
survey was not carried out and therefore
further alarm that there are many
residents who as yet have no knowledge
of this project and many who are only
just discovering the fact
such a lack of transparency is
disturbing lake windering is the heart
and soul of our city and as such all
residents must be given the opportunity
to have a voice in this serious matter
concerning their lake this is democracy
thank you um
and i think our final submission of the
check is from gail hurst is that our
final one yep great thank you so gail
hurst uh your submissions being about to
be ready
i'm very disturbed that their request to
spend even more rateposed money on the
lake fighting project is being
considered neither a cost-benefit an
allison nor a sound business case where
the lighting has ever been presented to
ratepayers who are entitled to expect
that their annual rate contribution
which increases every year will be
wisely spent
given the very troubling national
environmental report released last week
and the increased anxiety about the
rapid warming of the planet this is
the opportunity for the city council to
play its part in mitigating the effects
of climate change and protecting the
ecosystem of a wetlands
of natural national significance by
modifying or cancelling a project which
is neither popular nor responsible
thank you for all those missions a lot
of people have taken some time to write
in so i think we've made our way through
all those now um
uh councillors we have a motion before
us if i'm prepared to move it counselor
harris and then just a question a
question
um
just to be crystal clear um
uh to be frank i actually was going to
ask directors for a sort of linear
narrative as we go through but in
reality i think we've probably heard
that
tonight and be reminded of the different
phases we go through but just to be
crystal clear mr me um
my question to the ceo would be
uh if um
council took a mind to reject this
recommendation what would be the i guess
the legal conundrum that we'd be left in
thanks harris and mr ceo
through you mr mayor uh if council was
to um
reject
the officer's recommendation tonight
then obviously the resolution that sits
on council's books previously awarding
the contract at 2.2 million dollars
would uh be i suppose the guidance to
the organization and we'd have to look
at
i suppose how the project could be
modified
in order to fit the project within that
budget which would predominantly mean
you'd have to only do a portion of the
lighting so you'd have to leave out one
of the one of the sections of it to fit
it within
within that budget that does present a
few challenges given that the heritage
permits are based on a number of light
poles so we would probably have to go
through an amended heritage permit
process
in order to
adjust the project to fit the budget and
a change in specifications which would
both obviously incur some costs so there
would be some increased costs in
reducing the cost down to that value
and things cancelled it's only a
follow-up and if that was in council's
mind to
reject this um
recommendation
uh
would it be
could council entertain rescinding
a motion so soon after it some made that
decision
is a
i guess is a foreshadowed component of
uh an alternate to this motion
i might also ask an in addition to that
too given council macintosh has already
tried to rescind the motion in march of
this year is that legally possible
the different motion okay throughout to
our governance manager mr montgomery
through you mr mayor and thank you for
the question
what i understand the question today is
if the emotion was put to council
to actually accept this could a
rescission motion be put forward to then
place that
yes it could unless it's actually been
acted upon so once it's been acted upon
a notice of rescission
could not be actually be received
i am so i'm sorry about the sequence but
in as much as has it
is current status with a signed contract
is it i'd lose that it has been acted on
or it hasn't been acted on uh mr ceo
yeah we'll
start to see you through you mr mayor
and thank you councillor harris for that
question and it is obviously important
to clarify some of those things as as i
mentioned in answering one of the
previous questions after council
awarded the contract at the last meeting
we notified the contractor that they
were successful in
winning that tender that basically
is officers acting on the resolution of
council so therefore it can't be
rescinded the original resolution that
council's made because it's been acted
on and you can't rescind a resolution of
council that's been acted on all right
thank you encounter eddie um through you
mr me just a question to the ceo
following on from councillor harris i
take it that um
in the event that uh we weren't to
approve the motion to approve the extra
expenditure
then went through the
next six months as we've just gone
through the last six months of
going back to more approvals
arranging
whatever needs to be done in terms of
administration and good management
i take it then that would be faced with
a not dissimilar potentially not this
similar cost increase at that time and
then we come back again and we don't
want to pay that so we chase our tail
for the next six months so i just want
some clarification of how that works
thanks concerti mr ceo
through through you mr mayor and thank
you council lady for that for that
question uh as i said before you know if
if council doesn't um
raise a motion tonight in line with the
officer's recommendation we would need
to fit the project within the existing
budget which would require some portion
of it not being done
with a portion of it not being done
we're going to have to go back through
some of those approval processes so as
the mayor did a rough calculation before
obviously every month that it takes
price will continue to escalate in an
inflationary environment so while you're
reducing cost out of the project you'll
also be increasing cost at the same time
you're going to have to try and net that
out to try and balance it within the
budget
thank you
councillor mcintosh indicated she'd like
a question
thanks very much mr mayor um following
on from a couple of the presenters one
in particular put together three items
sorry council macintosh question
yes
um
can you hear me or not
am i not on the speaker we can hear you
now cancel macintosh over to you
thank you um one of the presenters
tonight um looked at three different
items on our council agenda and said
being over budget is almost a value of
three million dollars
if we were to rescind or reject this
motion tonight
and go back because it sounds i haven't
had any real answers to that australian
standards yet to my knowledge that comes
with the commitment from state
government that's not in any of the
documents that i've seen so if we were
then
able to go back and have a look at the
project we possibly could find
with a review of the way we deliver our
lighting using for instance the
trampolines and crosstalk illumination
only where we need it we may find that
we could save significantly
and and maybe reverse some of those
conundrums that we're dealing with could
i have a um response to that from mr ceo
please is there a way forward for us to
look at
an amended version if we were to not
approve this motion tonight
i'm not sure how we answer that question
council macintosh it's a bit
hypothetical but i might see if the ceo
is prepared to give it a try
simply just if we don't support the
motion tonight and we were able to look
at a
another model
is that is that a way forward that our
officers um so
i guess that question has already been
asked by councillor
and answered already by the ceo in
regard to what would happen in the event
of this motion not being successful um
and i guess your your further question
to that though is you know should an
entirely new model be looked at is that
correct correct
even the australian standards is linked
to the state government commitment let's
go to mr ceo
through you mayor and thank you
councillor mcintosh for that question
obviously it's important for me not to
predetermine a decision of council in
the end so council have not has an
officer's recommendation
in front of them
should council raise uh an alternate
motion that is different to the
officer's recommendation
then obviously council would need to
provide us with pretty clear direction
of how council would like us to progress
from here now whether that is fitting
the
the project within the budget or whether
that is to go back and have a look at
other alternatives that would need to be
a direction of of of council in the end
for me to
make a statement on whether that's
cheaper or not
would be impossible for me to do without
some detailed analysis around what that
solution is and what it involves and the
process we would need to go to and i
think that would be
um
that would be highly presumption of
presumptuousness of me
to make that call without that evidence
the council make noise did you have any
follow-up to that or your roku no no
worries
uh councils any further questions
do i have a mover of this motion
i'm being moved by councillor eddie and
the second uh councillor hudson um
council ready do you wish to speak to
him
thank you mr mayor and
firstly thank you to all those who have
submitted and spoken to the proposal
tonight and last time we met uh and for
the various other
emails i'm sure all councils have
received in regards to the matter
um i think the question tonight is
solely
consideration of the justification of
approving an increase in the cost of the
project
there's been a lot of suggestions
tonight that
there's cost overruns
it's been partly politicized in recent
weeks in terms of commentary in the
media about the project and the cost
at the end of the day i think it comes
back to two principal costs
and i'd commend the officers for the
due diligence in making sure that we
haven't rushed ahead with the project
and we've tried to be transparent
we've tried to make sure that
we're in the best position to move
forward with the project with the right
approvals unfortunately after the motion
was approved to go ahead with the lights
and there was then a
recommendation that
led to the interim protection order from
heritage victoria we found ourselves
with no other alternative but to go
through a process
of getting further approvals
the cost in time is the major reason for
the blowout and the reason we're here
tonight discussing an increase it's not
to do with the council offices it's not
to do with this council being
irresponsible
and i do get a little frustrated with
some of the commentary around it
i think this has been a more transparent
and open process than we've seen
in a lot of cases over the years and i
do commend the fact that there has been
a lot of work put into it
i believe council has made a decision on
the project
and this consequence tonight of the
extra uh cost commitment is simply
because it's taken us another seven
months to get to where we are to get on
with the job thank you
thank you council eddie councillor
hudson as a seconder
yes thank you mr mayor and i certainly
also rise to speak in favor of the
officer recommendation
and firstly to all of those submitters
that
took the time
with phone calls to email in to put
forward questions
and submissions whether in writing or in
person
i respect your position and thanks for
for doing that i know i have a different
opinion and that will disappoint many
people but
that is the democratic way but i
certainly thank you and respect you for
being involved in the democratic process
certainly like like councillor eddie
in terms of looking at the reason for
this particular recommendation tonight
and the increased costs
i'm really concerned that there is a
learning to come out of this
not only just for council but for state
government
or any level of government for that
matter
given the economic times we are in at
the moment
that shortage of supplies shortage of
manpower cost increases
even for
everyday people that are trying to do
reno's or build houses those cost
escalations and we're no different to
that
but when we sit and procrastinate for
significant periods of time or with
governments that want to promise
projects that then don't release funds
for a significant period of time
what was a reasonable costing at the
time then isn't the reasonable costing
of today
that's there so it's rightly so that
people say where is the money coming
from where is it going to be but this
project was a promised project
it's been through this chamber
a number of times and been voted on by a
majority of councillors to support it
based on the the information around the
type of polls the australian standards
and other things that we are building
to that particular criteria and
supported by an element of the community
yes there's an element of the community
that don't support that
um that's the the nature of the beast
that's the nature of democracy but where
we've been i think this is just a
um a revaluation of a tender or a
variation of attenders as the word i was
looking for
and in terms of that being ran through
the council process and being considered
with those overruns uh at the end of the
at the end of the financial and the wash
up what we've got in savings from other
projects from the last 12 months so
i'm happy that we can continue to
support this project hopefully now we
can get on get it delivered before it
incurs any further costs
thank you council eddie do you have any
other council wishes to speak in favor
of the motion
against the motion
uh yes thank you mr mayor councillor
harris and i'll come to you next
councilman mcintosh yep so i'm sorry
about that um
there'd be many reasons that i could
rise to support the motion even
despite the fact that i've always
thought it was a dog of a project and
had no evidence base for its support
i do actually like councillor hudson
feels sorry for the state government but
almost remind state government why don't
they give money to hospitals police and
infrastructure
in general rather than these sort of
but bequeathing it to
council on these projects i i'm always
stunned and amazed how much state
government can waste on these sort of
things which always find conjecture in
community and they trust me they've got
better places to spend their money on
however in saying that um councillors
it's a substantial increase on the costs
um and if i was the
um contractor i guess i would have been
the same space as well i would have
thought well costs have gone up and it's
the time to ask there's a couple of
things
even within our processes as we go
forward for other items when uh we've
got to be stringent about what we keep
um folk too
um and councils i'd also
uh own up to the fact that i have
stalled and
um
i'd want this project to go ahead and
i think i'll probably to my dying day
questioning whether or not i wasted
personally this council the time and
money associated with it and i think
that's really will remain an open
question
i can remember folk talking about an ipo
with me
in around the time when they were
submitted
and i assure councillors i was always
against anyone doing that it was always
going to be a confounding
process and in fact i think it's it's
found itself to be that
um but in saying that councillors
despite what we've heard from the ceo
about enacting it i think the cost
blowouts um to me are in excess of what
i'd believe to be
prudent i be
i i don't think it'd be honest to a
constituency that i represent is to
suddenly start supporting um extra
funding for a project that i don't think
has got any merit so unfortunately i
can't commend the recommendation
uh thank you uh councillor harris now i
know councilman mcintosh is keen to
speak as well councilman mcintosh
thanks very much mr mayor can you hear
me we can yeah
thank you and i will follow on uh with
many of the comments that councillor
harris has just made
and to start with just to say the
learnings in this are we need to do much
better consultation in the beginning yes
we did talk to 1800 people and about 80
of them did yes say that they were
interested in lighting the lake however
we didn't talk about what type of
lighting it was very clear through that
process
um that that that there was a different
interpretation
and when we're now looking at this
particular item before us and costings
at that particular moment in time would
have made a big difference
we know that uh costings if you were to
put lights on poles would have made a
great big huge difference we also know
that there was that requirement from
state government to follow australian
standards and of course that makes a
massive difference to the costings as
well i think the big learning is we need
to listen to our people but we need to
understand what we're asking our people
to find out exactly what they are trying
to tell us as well
i think that there's been significant
discussion around heritage and it's so
important for us to not do that wrong
heritage is important for our city it's
important for our lake
lake wenderry
refers to a time a moment in time in our
history when mr yule came to ballarat
and the indigenous woman sitting on the
edge of the lake said go away
this is myspace and that's an important
part of what we're talking about here
and why we need to consider history in
these spaces we need to not blame
history and the importance of our
heritage on the time that it's taken to
deliberate and actually ask the right
question from the beginning that's when
we could have saved a lot of time and
that's when we could have saved a lot of
money
the value for money matters our
community care about the space our
community care about how it looks and
it's the looks that are costing us a lot
of money at the moment
in summary we've gone way above the
figures that we initially talked about
six hundred and seventy thousand
increase we're looking at a project of
about three point one mill and our
community are asking us questions people
that we haven't heard from before people
that we don't know
people that are coming out of the
woodwork for all of those reasons i have
great concern about supporting a project
when there are others on the table at
the same time as well for such a
significant amount above what we've
budgeted for thanks mr mayor
thank you council macintosh
do i have anyone wishing to speak in
favor of the motion council hargroves
thank you mr mayor and thank you to all
of our submitters and to all of those
who
uh submitted questions i think they
really do help to keep council on their
toes considering
some of the things in here i hadn't seen
before like the spiderwebs issue and the
ongoing costs of cleaning and those sort
of things and it's really important for
us to consider all of that
i would just say though we're here
tonight to
debate emotion purely based on a cost
increase
none of us wants to spend any more of
rate payers money but equally none of us
wants to waste any more with extra
delays and changes and things that have
been
decided and voted on you know in months
past
we all know that the cost of living has
increased in many different areas of our
life construction just being one of them
i know my
car that used to cost 120 to fill up now
cost me 150 i know every time i go and
buy groceries for my family it costs a
lot more and i'm noticing it as i'm sure
we all are
and these are big dollars like to your
average person you know or 300 odd
thousand dollars is a lot of money
myself included and i hate seeing any
more than that kind of dribbled away on
process in the meantime
um
48 000 per month it's costing us to
continue
sitting on this which is gut wrenching
especially as a a rate payer and a local
business owner that pays rates on where
i'm trying to make a living as well it's
it is it's not nice um but yeah the 48
increase in the price of steel i think
our ceo said
um
yeah times are tough but i think the
only responsible thing for us to do with
ratepayers money at this point is for
john with the project that we've already
all agreed well maybe we didn't all vote
for it along the way but regardless the
resolution of council was reached and um
i think to go forward
uh you know we don't want to spend this
money but i feel like it has to be done
i don't particularly
enjoy it but i would in this case
definitely be supporting the motion as
it's written thank you
thank you council hargraves do i have
anyone wishing to speak against the
motion
anyone else in favor of the motion
[Music]
no i'm sorry counselor
johnson maybe yep council johnson
thank you mr mayor
it makes me feel really sad that a
project that once had enormous community
support
is now at a stage where
um
you know thousands of people in our
community are fighting against it
as one of the city's biggest advocates
for lighting up the lake wenderry path
um it's disappointing the process that
we followed as a council
and council hudson spoke of the lessons
that we can all learn
in various settings regarding cost
escalations and what popped into my mind
was the lessons that we can learn as a
council regarding community engagement
and consultation
we know from experience that many people
don't actively involve themselves in our
consultation processes
which is of course incredibly
frustrating until it gets to the
design or the proposed designs become
public
or even later sometimes once we've made
a decision
we've had clear and consistent
feedback
from so many in the community
that
um
that this isn't the right design for our
city and yet we haven't taken a
backwards step
so
i wonder whether the consultation
processes that we use
get the best outcome for our city
and what i mean by that is it
is it that we need to have more time
between coming up with our final designs
and putting them out to the community
and making a decision do we need to look
at uh actually going to where the people
are rather than making them come to us
to provide feedback
a lot of the time people uh may not even
be aware of projects so when it's
something as significant as lighting up
the lake with pole mounted lights in
such large numbers and victoria park
should we have gone to stockland
wenderry and had a stall and said this
is what we want to do
if we're here to represent our community
which of course we are
a big part of that is listening
and we also need to lead boldly
but sometimes listening means that
the message may not be the one that we
thought we heard initially um and that
it's okay to change our mind rather than
just continuing to try to justify our
decision
uh and for those that are listening that
think that perhaps i'm voting
inconsistently here i'm not i voted
against the original uh contract that
came out but i
also voted against councillor mcintosh's
recision motion and that is more about
the fact that i don't agree with putting
forward uh motions to try to overturn
decisions of council where there isn't a
majority uh support there i think it um
i think it gives people false hope
state government are apparently funding
this project
and i'm sure we'll take most of the
credit uh if it goes ahead but where's
the extra money
from
what was promised four years ago
it's an enormous amount of money
uh especially now there's an increase
for
a design that it feels like most people
in our community don't support
um and in conclusion um
i guess to sum up uh
i'm i'm voting tonight
the way that i think a majority of
people in our community would like us to
vote as councillors
and
it's tricky
because i obviously really would love
flights around lake winder a
but
as i said i think a really big part of
our role is actually listening to the
community and i don't think we've got it
right i don't and um i don't think this
group is going to go away either once um
the decisions made i think they'll
continue to advocate for a different
design and i do wonder
whether there's still time to go back
and look at perhaps less invasive styles
of lighting that may not be australian
standard but may still provide enough
light for people to enjoy the lake for
more hours of the day thank you mr mayor
thanks councillor johnson do you have
any other council wishing to speak to
the item
counselor coats
a question a question to you mr mayor um
in response to some of what councillor
johnson
said uh the question regarding
opportunity to potentially go back to
state state government around this and
other projects that have faced
significant
delays and cost overruns whether whether
that's
considered or an option to pursue sure
through to mr ceo
through you mr mayor and thank you
councillor coates for that that question
obviously the lake lighting project was
funded as an election
commitment
with election commitments
depending on who gets into power then
obviously
run that through a budget at their first
opportunity so the budget for the
provision of the 2.5 million dollars
obviously uh occurred some some time ago
in order to
seek additional funding from the
government we would need to
um we would need to apply to to
government for that we would need a
funding source to apply to given this
was a budget allocation some time ago
and and go through i suppose that that
process which obviously once again
would continue to delay the project and
continue to increase costs so it would
be a matter of determining i suppose the
increased cost that that would incur
going through that process versus
the funds that you might get out of a
funding application
thank you mr ceo did i answer your
question councillor coates um sort of
are you about to speak to it as well or
just checking okay
all right yes so we do council coats i
will speak to it thanks thanks mr mayor
and
reluctantly i will speak in in favor of
the the motion and agree with um
actually both sides of the argument here
in this instance it's a it's a really
difficult situation um and
most strongly agree with the fact that
no council would like
the fact that it's facing um an overrun
of caste a project that has
has been approved by a council and as
has been noted it wasn't unanimously
approved by council however it was
and
i feel as part of my role as an elected
councillor once a
decision has been
made
we we have a governance responsibility
to oversee the implementation of that
right rightly or wrongly whether we love
it hate it or are indifferent and
um this this project has actually taken
up a lot of counselor time a lot of
officer time
and
um for me as a counselor i'm i'm often
in a position where i need to pick my
battles on what i spend my time on in
terms of the absolute highest priority
and not not to say this is not
an important project it really is and i
really do appreciate that the passion of
community members who care and
care about the lake and love it so much
and have taken time to
ask questions put in submissions
lobby advocate and
care very
very very strongly um that's that's
incredibly commendable
but i do feel that we we are on an
absolute merry-go-round of increased
cost increased time and
i don't
i don't feel
i don't feel that it's it's right to to
give community members false hope that
um that we can
easily undo
the decision that has been made
i agree that there are certainly lessons
to be learned
and things that we can take on board and
continue to try and do better
it's unfortunately not an isolated
incident of cost going up on various
projects because of the the sort of
situation we're in at the moment but um
look in all good conscience in in terms
of my governance role as an elected
counselor i
reluctantly support the
motion that we have
okay thank you councillor coates is
there any other council wishing to speak
to the item
um i'll speak briefly to it in favor um
look
again i think other councils have said
this already there's no
none of us who are going to
you know
happily sign off an increase in
any project it is
awful to have to do it in the first
place especially when you learn that
it's an increase to the tune of forty
four thousand dollars a month that's how
crazy the construction costs are
increasing at the moment so the
continued delay uh makes this an even uh
you know greater burden on our
ratepayers now
i i have to accept of course that you
know there are always things you can do
to improve a consultation process but to
suggest there hasn't been one
just is mind-boggling i mean seriously
this is a process where this council
went through a process
in between 2015 and 2017 for a lake wind
rate master plan
it clearly on several occasions
throughout that report talks about
palmetto lights this council then goes
off on lobbies the liberal party and the
labour party seeking commitments that
are successful in getting that
commitment
we then have the next the best thing you
can have to an all of community poll and
it's called a state election so during
that state election the decision was
made to push on with it and to give the
city of ballarat what it asked for money
to put poll mounted lights around the
lake
we then go through a process of further
consultation we even put two lights
around there as a trial back in february
last year before having
another period of consultation which
then led to a permit ultimately being
granted in october last year so several
months later
it's it's hard to fathom how much more
consultation you can do in fact if
anything that's one of the learnings is
to make sure we don't go through a
period of four years between
uh seeking a a funding grant and then
actually doing the project in this high
inflation environment you can't continue
to head down that path we as a key
learning need to compress that time
between getting a funding grant and
actually doing a project because we
can't live with ridiculous cost
escalations as we're about to see right
now on this one at the tune of forty
four thousand dollars a month increasing
construction costs
so yes there's perhaps some learnings
where we can improve the consultation
process by front-ending it better before
we get the grant um that you have to
take on board absolutely as one way to
keep improving so you know i accept that
absolutely but once you get that grant
and once you you lobby for it and you
you know we need to keep on moving on
not allow another you know a few years
to pass this is a process that's been
really easily rolled out and plenty
other councils we've continued to make
mountains out of mole hills in this
particular case because these are simple
projects that have been delivered by
hundreds of other councils across
australia at lakes and waterways it is
not even remotely remarkable go to
places like geelong that have just
rolled it out just go to shepparton
which not only has rolled it out but
looking to expand it further these are
projects that continue to be
welcomed and accepted and well used by
communities all over australia
all right so given that there's no
everyone else wishing to speak um
counselor eddie do you wish to wrap up
thank you mr mayor uh just a couple of
comments to wrap up uh and thank council
for
all the advice and the views i do
respect all of those um i think there
are some pertinent points so that we
need to um
you know be very clear about
yes there are learning so you know i'm
sure for councillors for council ceo and
council officers um we need to make best
practice of everything we do we can't be
blase with ratepayer money
and i'm not in any way suggesting we
have been on that in any way but we've
got to be on the mark all the time to
make sure that we're getting best value
for money and doing best practice
um we've got to be responsible for
governance and as councillor coach said
we make decisions and we need to be
responsible and accountable for those
decisions and not be uh you know shy
about standing up for them once they're
made and collectively as a group we
stand in this in that space and the
final thing that i would say is that
there's been a lot of talk about the the
number of people against this project
with 114 000 people in the general
ballarat area we've had 600 people sign
a petition recently we had 108
objections
not a huge percentage based on that
and as we would always know the silent
majority of those who are okay with
what's going on so i think it's an
overstatement to say that
you know the significant majority are
against this project i look forward to
it proceeding and i wish you officers uh
best wishes in getting it going as soon
as we can thank you
thank you council eddie in that case i
will now put the item to vote all those
in favor
and those against
the emotion is carried
i will
sorry counselor
sorry can i stay away from councillor
macintosh my apologies i call for a
division please mr moon okay now whereas
we'll know that a division has been
called by council macintosh
uh all those in favor of the motion
please raise your hands in favor have
counselor taylor councillor hargraves
counselor hudson councillor eddie
councillor coats and council maloney
those against the motion please raise
your hands uh councillor macintosh
councillor johnson and councillor harris
thank you councillors
we will now move on to item 8.2
the ballarat net zero emission plan a
public exhibition
uh councillors
tonight's gender seeks endorsement to
release the draft ballarat net zero
emissions plan for public exhibition uh
we have one uh presentation as part of
this uh
from mary de bret on behalf of the
ballarat renewable energy and zero
missions incorporated or breeze
and that will be read out on behalf of
mary to brett thank you thank you and
through you mr mayor the presentation is
as follows
brees inc congratulates councillors and
council staff on the completion of the
draft ballarat net zero emissions plan
and urges councils to endorse this draft
plan in order that the next stage of
public consultation can begin
having been involved in the development
of the draft plan through the regional
sustainability alliance ballarat
steering committee and as an
environmental organization with the long
held regional goal of net zero emissions
by 23 30 brees is committed to working
with council in facilitating this next
stage of community engagement via our
communication channels
while the draft plan already reflects
considerable community input
through the rsab steering committee
steering group
discussions and via
the various stakeholder consultation
sessions the draft plan's purpose
as a focus for wider community
engagement represents an enormously
important next step in winning
public support by helping local
residents
commerce and industry to reach a fuller
awareness of what is at stake for all of
us in committing to cutting greenhouse
gases this next stage will be crucial to
meeting the aspirational target of net
zero by 2030 set by council back in 24
march 2021
um thank you for your presentation mary
um so ken said he had your lot on first
is it no just an old one um so
counselor question codes in that case
i was really just um happy to move it
and if i have a second aspect to it that
all right all right let's look first do
we have a seconder
councillor harris
over to your counselor coats
sure look this this kind of work is
really the reason i stood for council 10
years ago it's the reason i'm still a
counsellor and
it's
it kind of relates to what i was saying
before you know really really
picking my battles in terms of things
that have a really big and broad impact
for for community i think this is a
really great
example of multiple benefits for
all sectors of communities so for
community for business
and for the natural environment and
as as was mentioned by mary de bret from
from brees it does build on the the work
that council has committed to already in
terms of our own emissions so the
carbon neutrality in 100 renewables work
which is
really important and
um
something that that i think we can
already be
proud of we're we're making some good
progress on that but
um council's emissions are only one
percent of the entire cities emissions
so to to really
chip away and and make a significant
difference we need the whole community
on board in every every sector so this
is
a really great example of
leading the community encouraging and
supporting the community so working with
and for the community we can we can show
real leadership here we can help bring
people along
um
and
i mean part of the reason i'm just so
passionate about this work is because i
think we've got a real opportunity to
improve the well-being of our community
members
and
and future generations as well so
it's it's about
starting to address some of the really
big problems that we have that are
bearing down on us so the recent
australian state of the environment
report um
paints a pretty dire picture
and
really
it's it's no exaggeration to say that
our natural systems are really failing
and
part of that is the result of the impact
of climate change and and human impact
um
but it's not too late and we've got a
really really incredible opportunity and
in working with the stakeholders who've
been really engaged and really really
passionate so groups like brees business
group representatives
environmental groups and
and other community groups have have
already had in
input and narrowed it down to five five
areas so things like our homes um
focusing on homes that are
warmer in winter um cooler in summer but
cheaper to run i mean that's a
win-win-win for everyone um
what a great thing to do to to actually
work with the community to to get more
comfortable outcomes for people um new
developments making sure that we have
new developments that are
better environmentally but they're
better for people's well-being so
they're walkable they're greener they
have better social outcomes as well
businesses helping businesses to be more
sustainable
cut their overheads
but also really really think about and
really focus on their their local impact
and the the positive impact they can
have as a result of running running a
business um
transport uh
things like
accessible um clean public transport how
how great would that be for the city to
have
to have uh amazing clean
easily accessible public transport it's
it's like a dream but i think if we can
if we can get the community on board
with this it's really doable
active transport has so many health
benefits as well
um and electrifying the rest of the
transport or looking at alternative
energy means for that means we'll have
cleaner air as well and and that's
that's got an amazing health benefit um
reducing waste is a no-brainer as well
that saves on money but it's it's got
environmental benefits as well so these
are just the five key areas that have
been identified already in consultation
with the key stakeholders but i'm really
keen
to
get really good community buy-in and see
what people think do they think these
things are good ideas i mean
they all seem like no-brainers to me but
are there are there gaps are there
things that we can add to that list
how do we how do we get out to the hard
to reach sectors of the community and
the people who will be impacted most by
um changing climate but cost of living
and and these things are often connected
as well you know with extremes in
temperature and things like that that
brings up costs of living so
i am pretty excited about this work and
i do
commend the community members and the
stakeholders that have been involved as
well as the the staff who've been
working incredibly hard the offices
um in their work on this i think it's a
really great start and look forward to
getting really great buy-in from the
community
thanks councillor coates councillor
harris as a secondary
um thank you mr man just briefly it's
great to see this public um exhibition
as council coats was saying and
um it's something for the whole
community uh and i think when we it
started this council i think we all
thought about what would be central
tenants and what we'd like to leave as a
legacy and i think this was high on what
we thought we should be doing
and if anything
um i think council is sort of good at in
a weird sort of way is that the um the
echo dev type approach to
economic change and it's no doubt this
is a big economic change for the whole
community but we should be central in it
and we won't provide
all of the grunt we want the community
to do that but we can lead the way and
we can do
a good job of this and i'd like to
believe this is a particular legacy i
think of this council that we saw it was
time to actually get out there
i'm sort of
heartened in many respects but sometimes
you sometimes get the sense that the
climate wars are still
almost over and we can all sort of um
join hands a little bit and start to get
on and get things done and there are as
councillor coates was saying this remind
us all the time that we have got a
fracturing environment we do have to do
more about it and i think you don't have
to see those fires in the northern
hemisphere and somewhat cringe a little
bit when we think about that's going to
be visited on us in some time in the
future to remind us of the importance of
getting this right but now i'm i think
it's the time for this i think the
community is ready to really embrace
this
and i think we've got to look at the
widest possible
dialogue that we can we can have so
i'm enthused by this and i think it's
something that council can do well
great thanks council harris having any
other council wishing to speak to the
item
councillor johnson
thank you mr mayor
uh this is a great example of
a document that
would be wonderful to get lots and lots
of community feedback and input on and
it would also be great that when this
comes to council for endorsement we have
just as many submissions as we did
tonight on the lake wendary lighting
there is no
greater issue
facing humanity than
climate change and while i would love to
believe what councillor harris said
about the climate wars nearly being over
it depends on who you spend time with
and um
certainly in the victorian liberal party
um and some of the more conservative
parties
there is still a lot of denialism going
on
so
the reason that i say that is
it's important that we continue to
advocate to state and federal government
for funding regarding community
education councillor quotes really
nicely summed up the fact that a lot of
these changes actually lead to
lifestyle improvements
and quality of life improvements for our
residents anyway working with businesses
working with homes
looking at transport and public
transport making it easier for people to
choose active transport
ensuring that our new developments are
as environmentally sustainable as pro as
possible and advocating for changes to
the environmentally sustainable design
guidelines
i notice in the community a lot of
people say
government should be doing this and
government should be doing that
while they have incredibly unsustainable
lifestyles and i think the time for
pointing fingers just at government um
has come and gone we as local government
obviously have
a very important role
and this plan explains it perfectly
it's time for those in our community to
also make changes in the way that they
live their lives
and it's time for council and other
levels of government to make those
changes as easy and as appealing as
possible
clean accessible public transport um
councillor coates said it's like a dream
absolutely it will be
and it's frustrating that our public
transport in ballarat is still so poor
the services are irregular they're not
convenient they take so long to get from
one area to another so continuing to
advocate to state government
in regard to
investment in public transport and
investment in vehicles
that are less impactful
on our environment
and
finally uh just with the words that i
began with in regard to needing to
engage with our community from the
beginning uh with this stuff
and um to you mr ceo i would say let's
get out there let's go to the farmers
markets let's go to the shopping centres
let's be accessible
go to the people don't expect them to
and i know we do bits and pieces of that
but
i certainly um as councillors we can get
out there and encourage feedback on this
as well in fact councillor taylor and i
went down to bridge mall and did some um
did a little stall about wasting it was
like
2017-18 time
and people loved it lots and lots came
up asked different questions
and were much more aware of what we were
doing at council and hopefully more
aware of what to put in recycling and
not put in recycling
but i think it's a fantastic plan
so let's see what the community think
and engage them early
and then engage them in the
implementation of the plan as well
thanks council johnson any other council
wishing to speak to it
brought to a vote in that case all in
favor
thank you that is carried
item 8.3 is the draft youth strategy um
seeking to approval to release that
strategy for a public exhibition
councillors officer councillor hudson
thank you thank you mr um i reluctantly
missed the space before i'd probably
like to declare just a perceived
conflict of interest for this item that
i'm the chair of the ballarat and
district suicide awareness network and
one of the projects that is being talked
about in the draft youth strategy is the
rollout of mental health training and
awareness across our secondary schools
well i'm not directly related but i am
raising money for that project to
support it so i'd prefer to be out of
the room
and declare that interest
uh your perceived conflict thank you
council hudson and we'll note that
council hudson's
uh
leaving the room in that case councillor
taylor thank you mr mayor i'll do the
same even though not directly the
organization i work with uh highlands
land didn't put a uh submission into it
but does work in that space and i know
there's a couple of photos that have
been part of taking an event that we ran
as well so it's better off to
declare a perceived interest even though
as i said we haven't put a submission in
but may be perceived
okay thank you and we'll note that uh
councillor taylor is also leaving the
room for this uh this item
hopefully councillor coats is staying
here i'm not leaving i'm not leaving the
room i'm i'm happy to move it if i get a
second here and i think i saw a council
already all second so over to your
council codes
sure and the draft youth strategies a
really great example of early
and deep community engagement we i think
all of the counsellors have been
mighty impressed with our youth
ambassadors and the the team the staff
that have done the engagement and the
background work around around this draft
um hearing from them just recently was
was pretty inspiring actually to
see
the
the depth of understanding of the issues
across our community i think the future
is actually in good hands when you hear
from some of those really passionate
passionate young people so i think that
one of the standout things for me is
that early engagement with this draft
strategy so look forward to getting um a
bit a bit more feedback on that around
you know whether there
are any gaps or improvements or things
that people would like to see included
in there as well um
i really love the integration of plans
that the youths the draft youth strategy
talks about as well really really
looking at bringing together so many
different aspects of council work and
services to to benefit young people
drawing those connections between you
know sometimes with other strategies
that we have there are there are sort of
overlaps where you know if we
we're um improving our work with with
young people there's there's sometimes
overlap with
the early years and the older
demographics as well so things that that
benefit one sector of the community
often have broader ripple benefits too
which is great to see that integration
um
i think the focus on
mental health and health and well-being
is really important and great to see
that highlighted in their the social
connections the
the discussion of environmental
sustainability being being really
important to young people is is in the
draft plan
as well as transport particularly public
transport and
[Music]
hopefully we can engage our our youth
ambassadors with some of that advocacy
around improvements to public transport
and the bus network for example
it's
it's an area where there you know as we
touched on in in the previous report the
the net zero one there were just
multiple benefits in having really good
public transport there are
social connection benefits but there are
environmental benefits as as well and
it's a big equity issue when you have a
group of the community and several
groups in the case of public transport
that
are impacted by the poor system so it's
it's young people it's older people it's
people with disabilities it's people on
low incomes who are most significantly
impacted by that so it's great to see
transport and public transport in there
housing arts and culture
even the food strategy gets a mention
too which which i really like how
broadly um
this this strategy looks to benefit
young people and
and their future well-being um and
including
employment and inclusion too that was
that was obviously a really high
priority here in their draft strategy to
address so um
commend the work that's been done to
date and similar to the last report look
forward to hearing hearing some more
from the community on it as well
uh thanks councillor coates and i
apologize to councillor mcintosh so i
might have missed in my eye line seeing
the small monitor in front of me but i
think there's a bit of a contest for uh
seconding but i went in the end i think
to council already i'm happy
so i've already called it sorry i can't
study so you'll go to you and i just
apologize to councillor mack thank you
mr mayor and look i think council coats
has covered the area really well um
probably a couple of things
again it is highlighted by both
councillor johnson the previous
discussion and in this one again the bus
network and our reliability and i
certainly came home in portfolio
meetings that
the feedback of the youth is the
dissatisfaction and the inability to be
able to get around ballarat easily
and i know we're waiting on government
to help us with that in terms of a draft
plan and it is a high priority that we
need to get done
i want to commend the officers um
seeing this plan developed and the
diversity
and the the scope of uh
the areas that are covered and
interrelated into the plan i think are
excellent uh
as is always the case and i think the
challenge for us post the consultation
period and exhibition period
we'll be actually getting
bite-sized chunks that we can move
through and and achieve the real
outcomes across the board the danger is
when you get a big body of work that
it becomes overwhelming or we touch the
sides we really need to make some
progress so that particularly the youth
who are our future
for our city that they can see that
their input is not wasted and that they
can see very meaningful and deliberate
results so i certainly commend the
motion
excellent thank you councillor eddie do
you have anyone else wishing to speak to
the item
all right miss at this time councillor
mack first and then i'll go to council
johnson after that
thank you very much mr mayor um
sorry discounts one second council
macintosh will get you
to maybe unmute and we'll raise the
volume here
maybe we can get you to try now
um i think someone there must have
mine oh clear go
go for it um there's been a lot already
said that's very important
and rather than doubling and tripling
over the great things that have been
said i'd like to really congratulate the
officers of council
matthew wilson and his team this is an
area that consistently performs way
above our expectations we've seen the
different
group involvements individual
involvements across our community
in many different areas the diversity
the opportunity
and the really good consultation
and the fact that these young people
have been so very involved so heavily
involved
with how a draft strategy can look um
has i think brought along with it a lot
of happiness a lot of support a lot of
positivity and and that's really the way
that we need to move forward and i
certainly think that there's loads of
positive learnings and loads of great
work still yet to be done uh but this
really does set us up into a really
great position that has been very much
led by the people you know you've got
you go to
a basketball community and ask them
about basketball and you go to a
heritage community and you ask them
about heritage and and in this case
we've gone to the youth and asked them
what they think and and you can tell
it's working well so congratulations to
the officers i support the
recommendation
thanks cancer mcintosh john councillor
johnson i think you might have been keen
to speak next
thank you mr mayor
just uh to echo council macintosh's
comments about what an incredible job
the staff within
director matthew wilson's area of
council have done in regard to engaging
with the young people
there's no
wonder that there was such incredible um
engagement from the young people because
it was co-designed by
the young people themselves so a group
of 11 youths
who worked with staff to develop the
youth strategy
and
i couldn't believe the figures that we
were given when we had um
the
three three of the young people coming
the other night to present to us
about uh
the amount of surveys that were
completed and the amount of people who
participated in the consultation so they
put out a youth survey which had 1082
respondents
a youth sector survey so
people working within
that sector that are adults there were
48 responses general community survey 91
responses and then had two workshops run
by council with 26 attendees and one
youth led workshop with 50 attendees
it's incredible
incredible engagement which allows for
a plan that's based on um
lots of input from people who are
actually
who will actually be uh impacted by the
strategy itself so i just wanted to say
that i think that's great like that's
exactly the way we should do it um and
on the
uh
community remember what it's called the
spectrum of how you engage with people
from inform
um all the way through to empower
and there's like consult and
collaborate but i think we actually
empowered the young people uh to
undertake this work and think about what
they'd like to see in ballarat
the changes that they'd like to see and
what that
how they'd like to see ballarat as a
city support 12 to 25 year olds so well
done to everyone that was involved and
yes it's out on exhibition so please
provide feedback
thank you
uh any other council wish to speak to
the item
let's put it to a vote or in favor
that's uh carried uh we'll now invite
councillors taylor and hudson back into
the room
welcome back councillors uh we now move
on to item 8.4 the uh final community
infrastructure plan uh which has been
out to consultation tonight's gender
proposes the the uh final version of the
community infrastructure plan
2022-2037 for adoption you have an
officer's recommendation before your
counsellors so if someone prepared to
move it
remove it counsellor coats thank you and
the seconder
council harris
tesla coates
yes
happy to speak in support of this and
it did come to us a little while ago the
the draft and went out on exhibition and
we um
we got some some feedback to include but
um
but
in the main this is this is a really
positive way forward to have such great
evidence to
inform the planning of community
infrastructure is is really terrific to
see i'm really
yeah i'm really chuffed to see it that
the
foresight that we can apply to looking
at having really important facilities so
um
just to reiterate community
infrastructures things like community
hubs halls and meeting spaces library
services kindergartens and maternal and
child health services
and the scope may include may expand
over time to include arts and culture
facilities as well um but
it's it's great to see the work is is
just really well informed by the
evidence and the social planning so
looking at things where like where are
the highest areas of of need and where
are the gaps um what's what are the
demographics of ballarat what are the
age
and um
cultural demographics and how we how we
plan to get on the front foot for that
because community infrastructure is just
so incredibly important for
well-being of the community and
i think it's a really good sign of how
we how we care for our community the
sort of community infrastructure that we
provide you know the quality of our
kindergartens and maternal and child
health services will actually predict
the
well-being of future citizens so i think
it's something that we should be really
strongly focused on and focus like a
laser on getting that right because
that's what's setting us up for healthy
future communities
well said thank you councillor coates
councillor harris
thank you mr man and it's in um
this final version doesn't look
deceptively simple in a way and simple
because it is just simply evidence based
on
um simple demographics and simple
concepts and it did deliver as well i
think it's clear the community has
understood it and i'm pleased that it's
come back for its file endorsement and
probably encourage state government to
have a bit of a look at it too then pick
some winners off this list
and you wouldn't have any controversy
really because it's the information uh
and it's evidence base is christine
thanks mr may thank you council harris
we're going to clip that out of the
video and keep that for future reference
many other councils are wishing to speak
to the item
okay so we'll put it to a vote all in
favor
that's carried thank you moving on to
item 8.5 uh winry west community hub um
this item informs council about contract
variations um for the that particular
contract
uh there's uh an officer's
recommendation there do i have a
counselor prepared to move it
counselor harris i think yep and
councillor eddie to second
council harris over here
sorry let's get you to turn the
microphone on there we go there we go um
the um variations which it
represent a large consternation to us
all there's no two ways about that
um uh i think we've all been very
vaccinated so we've been taken through
the whole process and i think officers
for their their candor in doing it
because i think when we're all presented
with the evidence um
around the um
uh managing the asbestos and whatever i
think we all thought the same sort of
things as due deal has been done in the
first place or these tests sites across
the
site been done in an appropriate sort of
way and
i've been comforted and i guess we all
have now in particular ways gone through
this step by step because it's um
it is worrying
um
as i saying to councillors before uh i
lived in humphrey street which was um
had um the burden of the old
base hospital put across
chinese market gardens as they were
which included asbestos and whatever at
the time all of which unfortunately
doesn't have a great historical pedigree
and i think if you ask people where some
of these sites were unfortunately
they're not known
um
we would have had to remediate this and
finding it because it was in the public
reserve and the cost we wouldn't have
been able to defray in any sense having
known that it's there
and in fact i put to councillors really
the fact that um
the reality is with this i'd rather all
this asbestos be found
it's going to remain a real
blight on us until
it's actually removed from the
environment and
um
while it's not a great way to to find
some of this stuff when we have to want
to go and get a project which really
really needs to be done and i'd also
continue mr mayor that needs to be done
exactly at that site
to offer the full value that i don't
think there's any any way that we can
sidestep this
um and it
at a time when i i you know as we've
said before we know that we're going to
get
collared by um increasing costs as we
wait and delays i think probably the
delay in this project will probably
represent uh and even another conundrum
that we're going to have
set within it
um and
i again probably
our state government have a good hard
look at what council's going to have to
do over the next
um one to two years if we don't trigger
a recession and let's pray that's not
the case we're still going to be very
short of cash in a lot of local a lot of
um
state government instrumentalities
including local government so
this is going to be tough but i don't
think there's any way to sidestep this i
think appropriate thing appropriate
processes have been gone into
it's hugely disappointing but i'd have
to contend that
counsellors
vote for this motion
thank you council already
thank you mr mayor and uh supporting
councillor harris um and all that he
said uh i think it is uh probably
misleading in a way to uh
just to say that it's um a cost overrun
on this project or increasing price this
is a community responsibility we have
um it's been identified there was ample
due diligence done on the initial
testing twice
in the area
this
was discovered this
issue was discovered later
it needs to be fixed up it needs to be
ensured that it's a safe environment
particularly in that area of ballarat
for the future and i think that
you know while it is part of this
project we should all recognize that
it's one of the costs of cleaning up
from perhaps practices in bygone areas
that didn't realize the the risks that
were they were leaving for the future so
i think it's a very uh responsible way
to go thank you
thanks council ready do you have any
other council wishing to speak to this
one
guess i'll put it to a vote council's
all in favor
that's carried thank you
um item 8.6 uh relates to
some changes to draft governance rules
[Music]
these uh amendments are to be considered
and seeks council endorsement to release
the proposed new section of the
governance rule for public exhibitions
specifically in regard to
uh the use of online
elements of our meetings
uh councillor eddie are you moving or
thank
um to have someone prepared to move the
item
counselor um hudson is moving and we'll
go for counsellor taylor to second
council hudson over here
mr mayor it's pretty much uh procedural
i just put it out for consultation so
happy for that to occur
thank you
councillor taylor's not speaking to it
either do any council wish to speak to
us
i think we'll just put to a vote all in
favor
carried
uh on a note that counselor hargrave
earlier mentioned uh that she had a uh
conflict of interest for the next one
item uh 8.7
so we'll just note that uh councillor
hargraves is uh all right thank you
noores what's not to cancel hargraves is
leaving the room for this item that's
all right i've got it
okay
just wait for cancel hard race leave the
room
this item 8.7 seeks to extend the audit
and risk committee independent
memberships and review remuneration of
the committee uh councillors do i have
anyone prepared to move the item
council hudson
and second uh
councillor harris
councillors do you wish to speak to it
okay i'll just note that council hudson
said it was procedural uh
anyone else wish to speak to it
let's put it to a vote all in favor
okay that wasn't very long for
councillor grace for the other room
we'll call her back
hope you didn't go off and get a coffee
or anything then cancel the hard race
because there wasn't time for that
um item 8.8 contracts approval delegated
committee minutes move councillor hudson
seconded
by councillor taylor shall we take it as
procedural
i know you're going to speak to it well
by and large mr mayor it is procedural
but i just noted in the
convict who has been awarded the tender
for the sebastopol skate park who were
the
if i think back the original tenderers
for the skate park down at lengthy
fraser and what we built down there for
about 550 000 back in the day
we'll deliver probably about an eighth
of that so so it would be fabulous for
the sebastian community and the youth to
actually use it but uh it's great to see
convict still kicking around because
they've built a fantastic uh skatepark
atlantic frozen that still occupies the
minds and hearts of many
excellent and i'm so glad you didn't
treat us press angel
uh councillor taylor
anyone else watching to speak
all in favor
that's carried
moving on to 8.9 our instrument of
appointments delegations councillor
harris moving council hudson seconding
should we take it as procedural
councillors yes put it to a vote all in
favor
carried
item
8.10 is instrument of delegations
move to councillor hudson second and
councillor harris uh
and sorry i missed you a bit late there
apologies council macintosh but all in
favor
carried so um yeah just checking yep had
a couple of votes over here so that was
carried unanimously
uh 8.11 amendment to budget resolution
of the
2022-2023 budget uh councillors there
was a a minor amendment as documented
move council hudson
seconded by councillor eddie do you wish
to speak to it
we'll take that as a fairly procedural
scheme of things
all in favor
that's carried
we move on to 8.12 outstanding question
time items uh
are there any
it's
we'll move it through councillor harris
second councillor hudson treat his
procedural all in favor
carried uh
notice a motion there are none
um item 10 reports from committees
so counselors have a couple of joint
letters to note but let's go around the
rooms councillor
hudson i think had your lot on first
yes uh thank you mr mayor and um wish to
raise the topic of the sebastopol post
office or no sorry the former sebastopol
post office
um
and with the change of government
clearly the
federal member for ballarat the
honourable catherine king who was very
supportive
of trying to lobby and see whether or
not a post office could be
re-established in sebas
if this council might entertain writing
a letter to the federal member for
ballarat to ask her to lobby the two
ministers the minister for finance the
honourable katie gallagher and the
minister for communications the
honourable michelle roland who are the
two stakeholders
for australia post
that once again we could look at
the ability for australia post to offer
a franchise
in sevastopol for the community who is
certainly disadvantaged through not
having a post office and having that
relocated to dtc so
my counselor colleagues will entertain
that i'm happy to move that that we act
on that sure i think to have a second up
councillor taylor is seconding and it
was a bit of a battle between the
southeast
uh councillor taylor was second uh do
you wish to speak
further to it councillor
taylor or cancer hudson
anyone else wishing to speak to the item
all in favor
that will be carried and we'll draft a
letter accordingly did you have anything
else councillor hudson
taking that as a no uh councillor taylor
over to you
thank you mr mayor um
uh now i've just lost the date on the
30th of june there was a very
uh very well attended meeting out of
banyon
around
road issues especially in relation to
the truck
incidents but
what it enabled me to do is hack back to
2007 when there was a document that was
actually produced called the ballarat
road transport strategy that included a
whole lot of
recommendations around projects and
actions that should be done across the
city and i know this is something
has been in council's
documentation but the data there is
saying that
we'll reach population
by 2031 will reach 115 000. we've
actually met
that 115 000 already well in advance so
this document has been a reference
document for many many years but it's
getting to the point where
it's getting out of date to be honest um
i'm just wondering whether there can be
a report back to council and just
seeking councillors indulgent just on
that
strategy and especially around the
recommendations and the
validity of those recommendations
and whether um there should be
opportunities to use this document or
refresh this document so there's a
second uh
cool thing if you need to second if you
only have a report to come back
back to the council if we can all right
yeah uh and i'll get the ceo to speak to
it shortly too but i have a mover and a
second uh with councillor harrisburg
second uh is there any further
commentary i would like to give to it
before i go to the ceo to elaborate
further
nope
all right well let's let's um the second
or at least if you're comfortable
against our taylor speak to a councillor
harris
um yeah thank you look my happy second
um
councillor taylor's call it really is
time um
i think sometimes our focus has drifted
a bit at times and this is something
that we need to um re-look at and um
as we can see a lot of things sort of
falling out of it as bunny young's the
classic example but
um continually reminded that
our dialogue particularly with our state
government colleagues in in regard to
totality of our road network and where
we're going with it the car's not dead
you know and uh
it's
might be electric it's going to be there
um and
as much as i think sometimes
uh we can talk about active transport a
whole raft of other things
which we must and we really should and
we've got to endorse that but sometimes
you know we forget the fundamentals and
our community
i think as we've seen across the state
there's been a bit of a rethink about it
and people are concerned with potholes
as boring as that sounds and people are
concerned with traffic flows as boring
as that sounds and um
you can't fix that with all always with
scooters so i think we've gotta
refresh re-look
and be proud of a better result
thank you council harris i might also
ask the ceo to um elaborate elaborate a
bit further on where we're at with our
advocacy um to to partly answer uh
councillor taylor's call but um but i do
note of course we'll probably have a
report on it anyway
mr ceo
through you mr mayor and thank you
councillor taylor for for that question
and bringing it up um
it's actually it's actually quite a good
document and when you actually look
through it
it's actually got a really clear list
of actions in it and when you look at
the actions there's a number of them
that have been done
but as counselor taylor rightly points
out a lot of the data that it's based on
is is very very very old now and i think
it is actually really important that we
bring back a bit of an update on this
document and i think we use that as the
catalyst to recommend to council that we
advocate the state government for a
joint funded project to actually uh
review update um
this document that will really guide the
strategic road investment into the city
uh for the next you know 10 to 15 15
years so i
certainly think this is a a really
important priority as we move forward um
to get some focus on what are the key
strategic routes in ballarat and where
is the investment required going forward
thanks mr ceo so we have uh councillor
taylor's motion
uh to bring a report uh forward um on
our road strategy and uh the state
government is there anyone else wishing
to speak to that before i put that bit
to a vote
okay let's do that all in favor
that's uh carried um councillor taylor
do you have anything else
uh any other accounts i wish to speak
council uh coats yep
uh yes just a counsellor report in
regard to the courier engagement action
group as key
key egg co-chair uh just
to know nato quick in
early early july i had to think how long
ago it was yeah early early july and
thank all the community groups and
organizations who put on events across
the week including our city of ballarat
intercultural services team for the for
the great flag raising event and and
reception i think it was one of the best
attended ones we've we've had actually
it was a really terrific event and um
and thanks to all the other city
ballarat services as well like library
services who put on events during that
week um it just gets bigger and better
every year which is great
i said then i'm sorry i couldn't make it
to that one i had the nasty bug at the
time and wasn't all that out of iso so
i'm sorry i missed those events uh any
other council have any item
i have one that i might um raise myself
i would like to log a joint letter
from the wenduri senior citizens
club uh basically that letter i'll try
to read out a bit of it fairly quickly
it says we're the undersigned requests
that the winry senior citizens be
allowed to have either a sign or our
name painted on the carport we've asked
many times been told no we can't we'd
like to know why as the other people who
share this building this is the cowinda
centre building
have been told um that they can have
their name we feel it's unfair as all
the other seniors clubs and ballots have
their names shown on wall signs
and we feel that we're being victimized
by other tenants we used to have the
signage there until renovations were
done and now we're not allowed and want
to know why not so that's signed by 33
people
as part of the the wendry senior
citizens club
i'll
table that as a joint letter
but i might also through mr ceo
seek an update from perhaps director
wilson
uh as to where we're at with um working
with the wendy senior citizens
on this signage issue
thank you and through you mr mayor i can
confirm for council that officers
including myself have been in touch with
representatives of the wenderry senior
citizens club
and given them reassurance
and affirmed that we will work to get
signage in place and and that work is
now
in progress uh to to be completed thank
you
fantastic thank you um director wilson
looking forward to seeing their shiny
new sign
um any other council that have an item
council macintosh over to you just the
um sorry just one sec council macintosh
we'll
i think we have you now let's try again
thank you mr mayor and the two the
items in regard to lake windery lighting
project that we were requested to table
i am more than comfortable to table
those reports this evening and as many
people know there was over 2 000 people
with those combined
surveys whatever you want to call them
there was a great deal of disappointment
because as some people would know over
christmas over the christmas break when
they were
being
committed to
the signatures were being put down the
technical problems that came which
prevented a lot of those ones through
state government being registered but
what they do know is there was 2127 that
were recorded
with the combined total of the
stop the lake rendering lighting project
and i think it's important that we
recognise the numbers of people that
have
put their voice
into a signature
has entered it to us
thank you council mcintosh um
i might comment briefly on that i'm not
convinced that's an accurate figure in
the first place given
the first one lodged by um
macarthur at least as an mp um had 1072
signatures of which at least 16 were
double ups another 539 from which again
are probably double ups
uh from a get up petition
a huge proportion of these uh not even
um
ballarat let alone even victorian
residents we've got them from coming
from south australia wa queensland and i
think we've got to call out some of that
in terms of this
representation that they're all locals
um
you know seriously
that's that's a you know i think we've
got to be clear that the postcodes are
showing that's not the case
in many cases
all right i apologize
i have to essentially myself
fair enough um councillor harris has
pulled me in a bit there
and we've lost your audio so let's get
back to counseling macintosh who
probably wants to support me online too
no doubt counselor mac
thanks very much and obviously the get
up form when you put something online
there is the ability for others from
around to
be able to contribute or participate in
those particular petitions and what you
do see is people that have lived in
ballarat that are away or that own a
property here that may be coming
backward whatever it may be that gives
them that connection
but ultimately when you look at them
there are the majority of people that
are from ballarat nonetheless it's a
significant number of people that have
reached out and made a point to let us
know their concerns
okay
fair point thank you anything else
council macintosh
let's see
all right let's just see if there's any
other councillor wishing to
add a report
thank you x
item 11 no urgent business item 12 there
is nothing in section 66 in camera which
now brings us to a meeting close at 8 56
pm
thank you very much everyone
thanks all see you
you