June 6, 2013
The South Burnett Regional Council may be forced to look at closing some town swimming pools unless economic conditions improve, Cr Keith Campbell warned today.
Commenting on last week’s announcement of a 22.6 per cent rise in household retail electricity prices, Cr Campbell said the magnitude of the rise was a sign of the State’s poor economic situation.
He said State Government revenue streams have “obviously” been depleted and major natural disasters in 2011 and 2013 had only made the situation worse.
This meant the possibility the State Government would be unable to reintroduce local government grants in the foreseeable future was something councillors had to seriously consider.
Cr Campbell said a flow-on effect of the loss of State and Federal government grants was that councils had no choice but to reduce their own spending and increase rates or introduce levies to cover costs.
“The South Burnett Regional Council has reduced expenditure by over 5 per cent in the last year … through productivity gains. However, this only goes part of the way to making up for the shortfall.”
He said some councils have already gone to their communities to discuss the closure of services, and one item currently being considered in the SBRC’s 2013-14 Budget deliberations was the region’s swimming pools.
At present the council operates six public swimming pools in Blackbutt, Nanango, Kingaroy, Wondai, Proston and Murgon.
“Council has to consider all of its business, such as should it continue to operate a swimming pool in each major town in the region?” Cr Campbell said.
“These require significant funding and take in very little revenue.
“The net cost to Council for swimming pools amounts to over $680,000.
“There is no easy fix and council has to make the right decisions for the good of the region for the long term when it comes to the upcoming Budget.”
Cr Campbell is the SBRC’s Finance Portfolio spokesperson.
