We consider our annual result as an unallocated cash surplus (or deficit), rather than a net surplus (or deficit). This is useful as it excludes items that can make it difficult to understand Council’s underlying performance, such as contributions and grant funding for once-off project funding.

A $169,000 unallocated cash surplus is predicted in the draft 2024-25 budget.

Declining results in the 2024-25 to the 2029-30 years are largely driven by Council’s increasing investment in renewing our assets, along with additional costs incurred in the upcoming Council election year ($0.3 million in 2024-25) and start-up costs for the Surf Coast Aquatic and Health Centre in 2025-26 prior to its opening the following year.

We welcome submissions on the budget.

If you plan to request a project or activity to be funded in your budget submission, please first see if our community project development program or our grants program can assist.

Both of these successful programs are empowering people to make a difference in their communities. In 2023-24, the two programs have helped turn local ideas into realities, through $216,000 of Council funds.

Requests for additional funding via the budget process are not easily accommodated as it most likely would require a reduction in expenditure in another area. We hear regularly from community members that any reduction in service levels is often not supported, so changes to the draft budget can be a challenge.

Any reduction to this year’s annual result, which predicts a surplus, will have ongoing impacts to Council’s long-term financial position.

Council’s waste charge covers the costs of kerbside collections, waste disposal, recyclable material processing, public litter management, operation of local resource recovery centres, and the management and future rehabilitation of Anglesea Landfill.

The charge also responds to increasing waste service costs, including contractor costs and Victorian Government waste levy fees which are outside of our control and influence. The state government municipal waste levy has increased by 95% from 2020-21 to 2023-24.

Managing Anglesea Landfill and future landfill rehabilitation have also been considered in setting these charges. The landfill is estimated to reach the end of its life in 2027. The current estimated cost to complete rehabilitation works at the landfill at the end of its useful life is $12 million - a cost that has increased significantly from the 2022-23 estimation of $7.1 million. This is due to CPI, increased regulatory compliance requirements and escalating material and construction costs.

Council is required by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to have verified financial assurance to ensure we are capable of progressively rehabilitating the site to meet EPA best practice standards. To achieve this, we have been accumulating a Waste Cash Reserve made up of surplus funds from the waste service charge that aren’t required for our annual waste service costs.

This budget proposes to increase rate revenue in line with the Victorian Government Fair Go Rates System cap, which is 2.75% for the 2024-25 financial year.

This does not mean every property will experience a 2.75% increase. Each property in the Surf Coast Shire is revalued every year by independent professional valuers.

The annual revaluation of each property does not result in a net gain or loss of revenue to Council, it redistributes the rates burden according to updated property values. Movements in property values can affect the rate increase for individual ratepayers however across the shire, the average rate increase will be 2.75% - well below current inflation levels which eased to 4.1 in the December 2023 quarter.

We understand that many residents are experiencing financial pressures so if you are, please reach out to us as we have rates payment plans available to support you.

Visit our help with payment web page for more information. You can also contact our Revenue department on 5261 0600 to have a confidential discussion about your payments.

It is important to note that while some assets could be renewed now based on their condition, they remain safe and functional but we’ll time their renewal in future years.

Council provides more than 100 services to the local community, and maintains over $1 billion worth of community assets to support both the local population and the 2.5 million people who visit the area annually.

The introduction of the Victorian Government’s Fair Go Rates System in 2016 has significantly reduced the ability of councils to respond to cost pressures by increasing rate revenue. This means that funding the renewal of assets - whether it’s roads, drains, pathways or recreation - in the year that they are first due would impact our ability to fund other services, projects and initiatives in that year.

Our asset renewal funding strategy provides an overall allocation to asset renewal.

We’ve estimated the level of asset renewal funding required over the next 20 years, and will gradually increase the annual allocation to ensure funds will be available when needed.

Where asset renewal demands exceed the amount available for asset renewal, as expected in coming years, a backlog results. Council has acknowledged that with other demands on us to responsibly manage our finances, it is not feasible to achieve an asset backlog of zero.

Council’s high level of growth over the past few decades has increased our asset base and placed a greater demand on renewal requirements. We often hear from community members seeking new facilities, but people are rarely supportive of decommissioning a building. Sometimes other levels of government provide funding to build something, but there is no funding for renewal. All of this contributes to the asset renewal challenge.

Council’s current backlog is $8.3 million. The current asset renewal backlog as a percentage of our total property, infrastructure, plant and equipment asset base of $1.3 billion is 0.6%. This is a very low figure when considered across the local government sector.

Surf Coast Shire has two townships designated for growth – Torquay and Winchelsea. Torquay’s next designated growth area is Messmate Road, while Winchelsea is planning for a population of 10,000 by 2050. We’re part of a bigger picture, where growth in these areas supports national and statewide population increases. G21 regional plans also guide how the region grows.

For our growing communities, there is a need and an expectation for us to deliver core services and infrastructure. State and federal governments have a role to play, whether it’s helping fund large infrastructure projects or expanding services such as healthcare and education. However councils are largely responsible for delivering essential infrastructure such as roads, drainage and streetscapes, as well as places like parks and sporting facilities. When built, we have to continue to maintain these assets which places a lot of pressure on our resources and finances.

In places like Torquay and Winchelsea, we have funding programs where development contributes revenue for community infrastructure. This investment is obligated to be spent in these communities.

Torquay is also the township with the largest population in the shire.

We recognise that in areas where population is static, the community also has expectations and aspirations. We want to maintain existing assets to the standard residents expect, but the current challenging economic environment is constraining our capacity to tackle a wide variety of projects.

We also time capital projects to funding opportunities, such as state and federal government election cycles. It’s what we’ve done with the Surf Coast Aquatic and Health Centre, which will service community members from across the shire. And this is the approach we are taking with the recently-adopted Deans Marsh Community Hub Facility Development Plan, which we’ll use to advocate for external funding to help deliver this community hub in a future budget.

We also allocate funding to projects that can be considered “shire-wide” rather than for a single ward or community.

Council has three business reform programs (Business Improvement, Business Case Investment and Digital Transformation) to improve efficiency and service, and to generate permanent savings that contribute to our long term financial sustainability.

Council has incorporated an additional $540,000 of ongoing savings from the program into the 2024-25 budget.

These savings initiatives include contract savings under the Victorian Telecommunications Services contract ($119,000), technology and information leasing/licenses/maintenance savings ($224,000), and maintenance savings due to the transfer of assets to the Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority ($142,000).

The proposed introduction or increase to fees and charges is to ensure that they are closer to the true cost of providing these facilities, services and programs, and that they are consistent across the shire. This way, the people who benefit from the service are helping fund more of the cost, while those who do not benefit contribute less.

Ultimately, Council wants to empower communities. We are aiming to become a facility manager rather than a program provider, supporting community groups to deliver the services and programs to their local areas.