{"id":300505,"date":"2021-06-10T17:54:45","date_gmt":"2021-06-10T07:54:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=300505"},"modified":"2021-06-11T10:30:21","modified_gmt":"2021-06-11T00:30:21","slug":"council-probes-cleaning-contracts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2021\/06\/10\/council-probes-cleaning-contracts\/","title":{"rendered":"Council Probes Cleaning Contracts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
The costs and benefits of having most of the South Burnett’s public amenities cleaned by contractors rather than Council staff will be examined by Councillors<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
SBRC Regional Development portfolio chair Cr Kirstie Schumacher<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

June 10, 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n

South Burnett Regional Council will conduct a cost-benefit analysis about the cleaning of the region’s 51 public toilets.<\/p>\n

At present most Council amenity blocks are cleaned by contractors, and several of these contracts are due for renewal.<\/p>\n

The remainder are amenity blocks located at Proston and Durong, or in the region’s larger cemeteries, which are cleaned by Council staff.<\/p>\n

At Wednesday’s Community Standing Committee meeting Councillors were due to debate a motion to put contracts for cleaning public amenities in the region’s major towns out to tender.<\/p>\n

But Cr Kirstie Schumacher said she could not support the motion as tabled.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Instead, she would like to see officers conduct an analysis to compare the cost of using Council staff against the cost of cleaning contractors.<\/p>\n

Cr Schumacher said she had received many complaints about public amenities in Kingaroy since she was elected, and believed other Councillors fielded similar complaints in their own divisions.<\/p>\n

Cr Gavin Jones said he “understood where Cr Schumacher was coming from” but noted that facilities in smaller centres such as Maidenwell seemed well looked after by Council staff.<\/p>\n

Cr Kathy Duff agreed on the importance of clean amenities, saying lack of attention to this could seriously affect the region’s tourism.<\/p>\n

However, she thought putting the cleaning contracts out to tender could offer Council the chance to secure the services of a large cleaning company that could do the lot and save Council money in the process.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mayor Brett Otto said he thought Cr Schumacher had raised a good point.<\/p>\n

In the interest of sound financial management, he proposed the matter lay on the table until officers could compare costs.<\/p>\n

Officers said a number of contracts that would be put out to tender have now expired, so the cost data they were based on was several years old.<\/p>\n

However, a recent contract could be used to estimate likely current contractor costs.<\/p>\n

When Mayor Otto’s suggestion to lay the matter on the table was put to a vote it was carried 5-2, with Crs Duff and Henschen opposed.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The South Burnett Aquatic Centre at Nanango will get two new disabled change rooms and toilets, but supply constraints caused by the COVID pandemic mean they will come at a much higher price than expected.<\/strong><\/p>\n

At Wednesday’s meeting, Councillors voted to accept a tender for $271,503 for the work.<\/p>\n

Officers reported Council had originally earmarked $90,000 for the project in this year’s Capital Expenditure budget.<\/p>\n

However, price rises in materials and labour costs caused by the pandemic meant the original estimate was inadequate.<\/p>\n

Council received five responses to a tender for the job.<\/p>\n

Two of these were from local building firms which both received a 5 per cent price preference under the Council’s “Buy Local” policy.<\/p>\n

Even so, both tenders were much higher than the successful bidder.<\/p>\n

Another company’s tender – which came in lowest – was discounted because the bidder did not provide sufficient details and wanted the Council to work under its own terms and conditions.<\/p>\n

In the end, Councillors voted unanimously to accept the second-lowest bid.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Recycling looks set to garner a steadily higher profile in the South Burnett over the coming decade as the region’s waste facilities reach capacity.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A 2017 report tabled at Wednesday’s meeting showed Kingaroy’s landfill was expected to close in 2030, followed by Murgon (2031), Nanango (2035) and Wondai (2036).<\/p>\n

The Council would then be required to spend $11.5 million – in 2017 dollars – to rehabilitate the four sites.<\/p>\n

Officers noted the study would be carried out again next year to ensure data on the expected life of the region’s landfills was up-to-date.<\/p>\n

This report will be prepared by an independent company to ensure objectivity.<\/p>\n

Officers also said closure dates were estimated on a “whole-of-system” basis which meant that when a landfill closed, the waste it formerly processed would be transferred to one or more of the remaining open landfills.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the estimated monthly tonnages accepted by each landfill will continue to be reported to Councillors on a monthly basis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The South Burnett Regional Council will conduct a cost-benefit analysis on cleaning the region\u2019s 51 public toilets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":40382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22,3],"tags":[1131],"yoast_head":"\nCouncil Probes Cleaning Contracts - southburnett.com.au<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The South Burnett Regional Council will conduct a cost-benefit analysis on cleaning the region\u2019s 51 public toilets.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2021\/06\/10\/council-probes-cleaning-contracts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Council Probes Cleaning Contracts - southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The South Burnett Regional Council will conduct a cost-benefit analysis on cleaning the region\u2019s 51 public toilets.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2021\/06\/10\/council-probes-cleaning-contracts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-06-10T07:54:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-06-11T00:30:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/20130731apex3.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"412\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dafyd Martindale\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dafyd Martindale\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2021\/06\/10\/council-probes-cleaning-contracts\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2021\/06\/10\/council-probes-cleaning-contracts\/\",\"name\":\"Council Probes Cleaning Contracts - southburnett.com.au\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-06-10T07:54:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-06-11T00:30:21+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/fe1462de610cb7aeff2e2962d60f4188\"},\"description\":\"The South Burnett Regional Council will conduct a cost-benefit analysis on cleaning the region\u2019s 51 public toilets.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2021\/06\/10\/council-probes-cleaning-contracts\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/\",\"name\":\"southburnett.com.au\",\"description\":\"Kingaroy and South Burnett News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/fe1462de610cb7aeff2e2962d60f4188\",\"name\":\"Dafyd Martindale\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/author\/dafyd\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Council Probes Cleaning Contracts - southburnett.com.au","description":"The South Burnett Regional Council will conduct a cost-benefit analysis on cleaning the region\u2019s 51 public toilets.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2021\/06\/10\/council-probes-cleaning-contracts\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Council Probes Cleaning Contracts - southburnett.com.au","og_description":"The South Burnett Regional Council will conduct a cost-benefit analysis on cleaning the region\u2019s 51 public toilets.","og_url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2021\/06\/10\/council-probes-cleaning-contracts\/","og_site_name":"southburnett.com.au","article_published_time":"2021-06-10T07:54:45+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-06-11T00:30:21+00:00","og_image":[{"width":"620","height":"412","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/20130731apex3.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Dafyd Martindale","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dafyd Martindale","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2021\/06\/10\/council-probes-cleaning-contracts\/","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2021\/06\/10\/council-probes-cleaning-contracts\/","name":"Council Probes Cleaning Contracts - southburnett.com.au","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-06-10T07:54:45+00:00","dateModified":"2021-06-11T00:30:21+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/fe1462de610cb7aeff2e2962d60f4188"},"description":"The South Burnett Regional Council will conduct a cost-benefit analysis on cleaning the region\u2019s 51 public toilets.","inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2021\/06\/10\/council-probes-cleaning-contracts\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/","name":"southburnett.com.au","description":"Kingaroy and South Burnett News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/fe1462de610cb7aeff2e2962d60f4188","name":"Dafyd Martindale","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/author\/dafyd\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300505"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300505"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":300571,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300505\/revisions\/300571"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}