Dear Editor,
We need more than just wishful thinking.
At its February meeting, the Hepburn Shire Council identified nine priority capital projects for the Shire, including a female friendly soccer facility at the Doug Lindsay Recreation Reserve in Creswick ($5.42 million); a new pavilion at the Glenlyon Reserve ($1.3 million) and the first phase of a major upgrade to the Daylesford Town Hall ($4.05 million for the first phase with the full cost estimated at $25.4 million). Against the recommendation of the Council’s officers, the Council also decided to include repairs to the decaying, and now closed, Wheeler’s Bridge north of Creswick at a cost $10 million.
The total of these projects comes to $22.6 million (see table below).
How repairing a bridge at a locality known as Lawrence, with a population of just eight, can be a top priority for the Shire escapes me.
But the real problem with these priority projects is that,apart from an implied contribution of $10,000 towards the cost of re-aligning Albert Street in Daylesford, and $1,000 for the soccer pitch at Victoria Park, all the funding for these projects is to be sourced from either the Federal or State Governments.
If the Council can only scrape together $11,000 for its top priority projects, its financial position must be more serious than we have been led to believe.
It’s time for Council to be up front with the ratepayers, and acknowledge that it cannot afford any major projects for the foreseeable future, and that its list of so-called priority projects is nothing more than wishful thinking.
Maybe it’s time to start looking for a long term solution: breaking up the Shire and amalgamating the parts with adjoining councils.
Yours sincerely
Dr Trevor Armstrong
