Councillor Ros Wight has been continuing to question Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council over many items that may have been left in the dark. Tuesday’s Council meeting was no exception.
Wight started by asking Council: “There is no detail on fuel expenditure in the budget, e.g. fuel for Council trucks, graders, street cleaners and staff entitlement usage of fuel relating to workplace agreements. This is a serious cost to the council with no evidence of diesel cost going down. What are the figures for these items?”
Response from Council Officer: “With the limited time available to respond to this Question With Notice, the following summary information is provided in relation to Council’s expenditure on diesel, petrol, oil, grease and associated plant servicing consumables.”
Council said for the 2023–24 financial year, actual revenue was $894,950, increasing to $970,049 in 2024–25. The original estimate for 2025–26 was $867,330, but the year-to-date actual stands at $718,170, with a revised estimate of $811,555.
“These figures include fuel and associated consumable costs across Council’s plant and fleet operations, including trucks, graders, street sweepers and other operational vehicles.
“A more detailed breakdown of expenditure categories and analysis would require additional investigation and officer time.”
Wight then asked, “We were told last Council meeting, delay in proceeding with this budgeted agenda item was caused by the incomplete business plan. When was a business plan initiated, who by and why? Cootamundra Waste Facility was not required to submit a business plan, so why is this necessary for Gundagai? We were also told that last March, when this agenda item was raised again, bearing in mind it has been budgeted for three years, that staff were busy. We hadn’t even been de-amalgamated, how could a simple business case take over a year to start, let alone finish?”
Response from Council Officer: A business plan for the Capital Expenditure upgrades was requested by Council (Resolution 056/2025) to ensure Council funds were being allocated and used responsibly. The development of a business case was necessary to comply with Council Resolution 056/2025.
The development of the business case required pulling together a vast array of disparate data that was not easily available and required the sourcing and recording of information from stored paper forms. This gathering and collation of the information was undertaken by internal staff in addition to their normal duties, as well as ensuring special events were planned for i.e. Richard Norden memorial ceremony. Processes are now in place, so the information is recorded electronically as it is received.”
Wight’s final question was: “In 2024, there was a motion passed to dismantle the Cootamundra saleyards. This included dismantling the loading ramps, yards, recycle the timber, steel etc make good the site, leaving the truck wash intact. Crown Lands have taken forever to respond, and I note that Council staff have contacted them this month; they- Crown Lands- don’t agree to giving the site over for community use. Exactly where is the Council on this situation, two years on?”
“Response from Council Officer – Council staff submitted a change of use application form to the EPA after the original consultation, where the EPA recommended the change of use be changed to “community use”. Unfortunately, due to staff changes within Crown Lands, Council staff have had been dealing with multiple Crown Lands staff, which had made it difficult to move forward with the application. Crown Lands have removed the application for change of use at the saleyards as they did not accept the change of use for “community Use”, and Council needs to identify a specific use and then submit another change of use application. As discussed with Councillors previously, a workshop is to be arranged to discuss specific options for the use of the saleyards land to enable the approval for a change of use.”
Jack Murray
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