Our budget themes
For this year's budget, the following themes were set in place as guides for Councillors' decision making. The themes were generated in discussions between Councillors and Town staff, and received broad support from the community during our participatory budget process.
Green and Clean Vic Park
A sustainable future for our Town means making decisions and setting goals with the environment and our long-term impact on it in mind.
Of our three focus areas, you our community ranked this one as the most important for the financial year ahead.
With this in mind, we have committed to removing single-use vinyl banners from our advertising budget, installing solar panels at our ranger depot, introducing electric vehicles to our Town fleet and pursuing more than 30 projects that fall within our Urban Forest Strategy (UFS). These projects will see the Town plant about 3600 trees this financial year, adding to the 8500 planted so far under the UFS.
Thriving and Vibrant Vic Park
Just as important as delivering everyday Local Government services and maintenance programs, is doing our bit to build a thriving and vibrant community.
We aim to achieve this through a range of infrastructure and placemaking projects, as well as through a busy events program and a plethora of community initiatives.
The final phase of the Lathlain Precinct Redevelopment will welcome a new grandstand at Lathlain Oval, and see the creation of a contemporary, multipurpose centre with function spaces, meeting rooms and exhibition areas. The redevelopment will support the future of football in the area and provide opportunities for community use of shared facilities. Meanwhile, our Archer/Mint Streetscape Improvement Plan will see the creation of a vibrant Town Centre with easy links to the surrounding area.
On the events front, our Summer Street Party is angling to make a triumphant comeback, our Twilight Concert Series will continue to soothe audiences and the Town’s sponsorship program will provide opportunities for community members to stage the events they want to see happen in their local areas.
Improving the Town’s Financial Health
Over the course of the last three years, the Town has sought to soften the impact of the pandemic on ratepayers.
We have cut red tape for businesses by relaxing planning conditions and abolishing some fees, and have continued to offer a number of grants to residents and organisations through our Vic Park Funding Program. In addition, rates have been designed in recent years to give the community some short-term financial breathing room.
While this reprieve has been essential to our community, we now face a need to find a balance between rate levels this financial year and achieving current and future projects which are of high value to the community in a high-cost environment.
With this in mind, and taking into account feedback received from the community as part of the Town's participatory budget approach, we have prioritised a financially conservative approach to the 2022-23 financial year.