{"id":215600,"date":"2018-08-15T13:49:15","date_gmt":"2018-08-15T03:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=215600"},"modified":"2020-07-28T15:02:24","modified_gmt":"2020-07-28T05:02:24","slug":"council-delays-cbd-upgrade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2018\/08\/15\/council-delays-cbd-upgrade\/","title":{"rendered":"Council Delays CBD Upgrade"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The South Burnett Regional Council will not take any action on Kingaroy’s CBD upgrade this calendar year while it continues to search for project funding<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

August 15, 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n

South Burnett Regional Council will not begin construction work on Kingaroy’s CBD upgrade this year but planning for the project will still go ahead.<\/p>\n

At Wednesday’s monthly meeting, Councillors voted to place a $2 million loan the Council has taken for the project into a restricted cash reserve, and continue work on preliminary designs instead.<\/p>\n

This work would include drawing up a schedule of quantities and preliminary costings that would take into account feedback Council had received during public consultations in March.<\/p>\n

In July last year, South Burnett Mayor Keith Campbell announced the Council would set aside $2 million each year in the 2018-19 and 2019-20 budgets to build a $4 million war chest for the project.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It would then seek a matching contribution from State or Federal Government grant programs so work on the $8 million upgrade could commence as soon as funding was secured.<\/p>\n

Early this year, the Council submitted an application to the Federal Government’s Building Better Regions Fund (BBRF) for a $2 million contribution to the project, and also drew down a $2 million loan from Queensland Treasury in anticipation its grant application would be successful.<\/p>\n

However, in July, the Council found its BBRF application had been declined.<\/p>\n

At Wednesday’s meeting, Councillors were told Round 3 of BBRF was expected to open for applications later this year, and the Council intended to resubmit its application.<\/p>\n

In the meantime – until funding was secured – officers recommended the best course of action was to continue to refine plans for the project.<\/p>\n

The Kingaroy Chamber of Commerce and Industry has been agitating for a start on the project.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Speaking after the meeting, KCCI president Rob Fitz-Herbert said the group accepted Council’s decision.<\/p>\n

“If the Council start working on the streetscape now, they would be ineligible to resubmit to BBRF because it only funds shovel-ready projects,” Mr Fitz-Herbert said.<\/p>\n

“We would rather see the Council secure the funding it needs first, even if that means a bit of a delay.<\/p>\n

“However, once funding is secured we’d like to see work start as soon as possible.”<\/p>\n

Mr Fitz-Herbert said many things that came up during the public consultation process – like adding RV parking spaces to the CBD, or improving existing car parks – could be done fairly quickly.<\/p>\n

“We’d like to see that happen,” he said.<\/p>\n

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