The following are projects planned in this budget that are of significant dollar expense. We will give an explanation of benefits to the community with each.
Vehicle replacement
These are replacing council-owned vehicles and include cars, utility vehicles, and trucks as needed. There is no information on the number of vehicles and life cycle management. $2.1M is a significant cost, there could be savings here.
Technology Replacement & Digital Transformation
There are costs of $2.1M to replace computers, laptops and staff IT equipment. When you combine this with the Digital Strategy Costs of $8.29M, Council is spending $11M or 9% of its annual rates on these items. This is significant and there has been no public business case or proof of value. The public deserves to see the business case and long-term savings and efficiency that this proposed spend would deliver.
Local Road Resurfacing
This spend is a welcome improvement at $2M but it is still only 1.5% of the council's rates income. We believe move investment is needed here annually.
Chapel St Redesign
This item is more misguided spending. Over the last 5 years, this Council has spent in excess of $80M on the area. $70M on Prahran Square and over $10M on street and footpath improvement works and the like. We accept there is always more to do in Chapel Street but spending another $3.2M on a "new design" will not improve the safety, cleanliness, social issues that continue to be ignored. We remain concerned that this spending is simply more waste that will lead to poor outcomes.
Percy Treyvaud Masterplan
This is a controversial issue. The whole project is expected to be $46M at this stage. This year's spend of $7M reflects 5.5% of rates income. It is high. Over the last 5 years, Council has spruiked that this project is desperately needed. There is still no business case. The entire premise of this spend rests on the following equation.
"The average number of netball/basketball courts metro councils have is about 1 per 1800 persons. Stonnington's population is 120,000 - therefore we need "X" number of courts and are roughly 14 courts short". There is no evidence that ANY kids in Stonnington are unable to play highball sports, rather, there are almost 50 courts right on Stonnington's boundaries with Boroondara, Monash, Glen Eira, Yarra, etc. This spending continues to be a political issue.
Upgrade Car Park Systems
At $1.2M this is a significant spend. Most of Councils carparks are outsourced. Perhaps this is wasteful as Council has not included the ongoing improvements as a cost to the actual car park contractors.
Footpaths
At $1.4M and only 1% of Council rates revenue, we believe this spend needs to be significantly increased annually.
Budget Feedback
Stonnington Council has a budget submission process that is difficult to navigate, so we have designed our own short form that you can complete and we will send to them for you. Please complete the BUDGET FEEDBACK FORM by clicking the link below..
https://www.stonningtonrp.com/budgetfeedback
