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Council to tighten its belt

Jessica Clement

Thursday 1 May, 2008 12:01am

LAKE Macquarie Council has been forced to implement across the board cuts in the 2008/09 budget to combat rising costs and an uncertain economic outlook.

Mayor Greg Piper said the formulation of the budget had been "significantly difficult" for staff.

A 6 to 10 per cent reduction in recurrent expenditure levels has been achieved to maintain a budget surplus of $959,000 with the council's income potential curbed due to a host of circumstances including:

rate capping at 3.2 per cent, resulting in a "grossly insufficient" amount of revenue to cover increasing costs.

the cost of the coming local government elections, as determined by the NSW Electoral Commission ($1.1 million).

an extra $1.3 million required for Local Government Superannuation Board contributions.

Some projects mooted to begin in 2008/09 will not proceed. These include the Chapman Oval Skate Park and implementation of the Toronto Foreshore master plan.

The council has made room for:

construction of the $1.7 million Cameron Park Community Centre.

more than $1 million in environmental initiatives.

$645,000 for parklands and sporting facilities at Northlakes.

$100,000 for the expansion of the Hunter Sports Centre.

The draft Lake Macquarie management plan and budget will be on public display and open for comment for 28 days.