Council is required to develop long, medium and short term plans that detail how the community’s vision, aspirations and priorities will be delivered via projects and services.

Snowy Valleys Council is committed to using the IP&R Framework to strengthen the linkages between community aspirations, financial capacity and practical service delivery.

Have your say

At the April 2019 Ordinary Council Meeting, Councillors endorsed our revised Draft Integrated Planning and Reporting documents for community feedback.

Included in this set of draft plans are the:

• Draft one page amendment to the 2018-2021 Delivery Program
• Draft Resourcing Strategy 2019-2029 including:
  • Long Term Financial Management Plan (including the 19/20 Operational Budget)
  • Workforce Management Plan
  • Strategic Asset Management Plan
• Draft 2019-2020 Operational Plan
• Draft 2019-2020 Fees and Charges

Have your say on any or all of the draft documents via our on-line feedback form (situated at the bottom of this page). We want to make sure that your submission counts, so please register in order to contribute.

Draft one page amendment to the 2018-2021 Delivery Program

Our financial sustainability

Council is concentrating on long term sustainability and is focused on achieving a financially sustainable position within 5 years (by the 2023/24 Operational Budget). Council generates 30% of operating revenues from rates and while not seeking to increase this overall, it does need to maintain this if it is to be sustainable. Council needs to resolve whether or not it will apply for a new Special Rate Variation (SRV) and notify the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal of New South Wales (IPART) if it intends to do so by late 2019. The application itself is due early 2020

To allow the application of an SRV, Council must flag the intention to develop an application within its Delivery Program. Therefore once adopted this additional draft one page amendment will be added to the already adopted 2018-2021 Delivery Program.

It is important to note that this additional page covers an intention to apply only, and not necessarily an action to implement an SRV. The SRV application process to IPART requires rigorous community consultation, and decisions of Council at multiple steps in the course of applying.

Draft Resourcing Strategy 2019-2029

The focus of the Resourcing Strategy is financial sustainability. Council needs to ensure that not only does it have the resources required but also that it carries out the functions in a way that provides best possible value to the community.

The Draft Resourcing Strategy 2019-2029 includes:

1. Council Improvement Program (CIP) –

The CIP collates improvement actions from key elements of the Resourcing Strategy, and other sources to provide a comprehensive improvement roadmap to deliver sustainable best value to the community.

A key sustainability action will be undertaking community engagement about Council’s intention to apply for a new Special Rate Variation (SRV) to maintain our rate revenues that would otherwise be lost when the existing SRV expires in July 2020.

There are strict regulations and processes imposed on the introduction of an SRV, and significant work must be undertaken during the next financial year to engage with our community on the options.

2. Long Term Financial Plan (LTFP) –

The LTFP is a planning tool that shows the long term (10 year) financial impacts of Council’s decisions, based on a set of assumptions and includes the 2019/20 budget.

The key focus of this draft LTFP is Council’s General Fund and two scenarios are considered:

• A ‘planned’ scenario which aims to have Council achieving an operating surplus within five years – this scenario assumes Council will undertake the key actions laid out in the CIP, including applying for an SRV.
• An ‘unsustainable’ scenario which assumes rate revenues will decrease by $650,000 per annum when the current Tumut region SVR expires in 2020.

3. Strategic Asset Management Plan (SAMP) -

A key challenge for Council at this stage is establishing meaningful performance measures for its asset management activities linked to the available budgets. The SAMP includes an overview of Council’s building and infrastructure portfolio and an individual service improvement plan to increase quality, efficiency and reliability.

4. Workforce Management Plan (WMP) –

The WMP enables Council to predict and plan its future workforce needs and describes the high level framework required to guide and inform people management strategies over the next four years.

Draft 2019-2020 Operational Plan

The Draft 2019-2020 Operational Plan is a one year plan which sets performance measures to ensure the activities of the Delivery Program are achieved. It is the blueprint of what Council aims to achieve over the coming financial year.

Draft Fees and Charges Schedule – 2019-2020

The draft fees and charges 2019-2020 sets out the fees that Council charge for all its services and programs. It has been prepared using a 2.5% CPI increase. A number of changes have been made to further simplify and streamline fees and charges across the whole Snowy Valleys Region including a simplified fee structure for hall hire and harmonising fees across cemeteries and waste management.