Council Meeting Update - 12 March 2024

 Here is an overview of outcomes from tonight’s Ordinary Meeting of Tamworth Regional Council:

• Councillors tonight agreed to allocate $850,000 from the Westdale Land Reserve to provide additional funding for the Jewry Street Extension project, a heavy vehicle bypass from Taminda to the Tamworth Global Gateway Park. The money will be repaid to the reserve through the sale of land at the Tamworth Global Gateway Park. The funding for the project initially included $5.886 million from the NSW Government’s Growing Local Economies program and $654,000 from Council’s Civil Construction Reserve. A report to Council explained the Jewry Street Extension was completed in excess of the original $6.54 million budget due to a range of factors. These included an 18-month delay while complex flood modelling and landowner negotiations were completed, global supply chain issues and increased material costs which could not have been forecast at the time of the funding application in 2018. The Council report said all Park land sales are returned to the Westdale Land Reserve and as at 31 December 2023 there was $11,361,229 owing to the reserve. Currently about $5 million of land sale revenue has been deposited into the reserve, an additional $6.7 million of land sales are under contract and awaiting settlement and about $9.6 million of land is available for sale, the report said.
• Tonight Councillors also decided to move forward with “Australian Fauna” themed road names for Stages 12 to 17 of Moore Creek Gardens. The proposed road names are Bowerbird Road, Fantail Street, Pardalote Court, Pipit Street, Plover Street, Quail Close and Zebra Finch Drive. These names were chosen as they are birds that are identified as occurring in the Tamworth region. The proposed names will now go on display to the community and if there are no formal objections, they will be published in the Government Gazette.
• Councillors agreed to a full fee waiver for the NSW Primary School Sports Association Football Championships to be held in August for the use of the Gipps Street Sporting Complex in Tamworth. The event is expected to bring 350 players to the region.
• Councillors tonight considered a report showing progress on the first six months of the 2023-24 Our Annual Plan and Budget. The report – for the six months to December 2023 – revealed that from 212 reportable actions a total of 81 per cent are either complete or on track.
• More than 4,000 trees were planted by Tamworth Regional Council staff and the Urban Street Tree Advisory Group in 2022 to 2023, according to a report tabled at tonight’s meeting. The report included minutes of the two most recent group meetings. It also revealed information about future tree plantings scheduled for locations such as Duri Rd, White St and Brisbane St as part of Council’s greening strategy. The report said further work to finalise a planting strategy for autumn, which includes a detailed audit of what replacement trees are needed to address the losses of plantings across the region, is underway. The plantings are funded through Council’s existing projects and operational budgets.