A Tamworth Regional Council spokesperson explained the plant and vehicle holdings savings noted in the Organisation Sustainability Improvement Plan came about as a result of an extensive review process conducted over a number of years. The usage patterns for each type of plant or vehicle was looked at in detail. It was found that Council could reduce the number of plant hired and/or purchased by scheduling projects to allow each item to be shared across multiple teams in different locations across the Tamworth region. This means that each vehicle is used more and Council is able to reduce the cost of plant hire.

The “reduction in rates charged on Council-owned properties” in the plan was achieved by classifying them as non-rateable. For context, nearly $1.9M in rate exemptions are mandated by the NSW State Government for properties including government-owned properties, religious institutions, private schools, hospitals, and retirement villages and community housing. Council properties privately leased are excluded due to restrictions under the National Competition Policy. By making this change, Council was able to increase its rate income recouped from external ratepayers. On average, the annual impact of this for individual property owners equates to less than $20.

The spokesperson said Council is continually looking for ways to make efficiency gain and operational savings as part of its ongoing business improvement efforts. “This is a core part of our efforts to optimise benefits for our community,” the spokesperson said. “It is a continual part of what we do – it’s not simply something we have done because an application for Special Rate Variation is now being proposed.”