West Coast Council has accepted recommendations for sites across the municipality to benefit from over $5mil of capital works as part of the 2017-2018 budget

Whilst the budget allocation for the works was approved as part of the 2017-2018 Annual Plan, details of sites to be included in the Stormwater, Road Reseal and Roads to Recovery Programs were presented to Council at its July meeting last night (25 July).

Sections of unsealed roads in Zeehan, Trial Harbour and Macquarie Heads, along with a sealed section at Conlan Street will have over $220,000 of works completed as part of the Federal Government-funded Roads to Recovery Program.  The program will enable works such as road reshaping and resheeting, traffic management improvements, road widening, drainage improvements, removal of vegetation and signage to be undertaken.

With a $250,000 budget allocation for the Stormwater Program, open drains in Zeehan, Rosebery, Strahan and Queenstown will be piped and covered in the current financial year.  In a proactive move, Council also adopted optional project sites as a second priority, with works on these locations to be completed should the primary projects be completed under budget and with enough savings to allow additional works to be completed.

Council will once again deliver a Road Reseal Program, with $100,000 budgeted.  This comes after the previous program concluded in 2014.  Recently Council engaged specialists to complete inspections of roads within the municipality where, using high-level technology, data was collected that will enable Council to forecast future road maintenance works.  For the current financial year roads in Queenstown, Rosebery, Zeehan and Strahan will have sections resealed, with the reseal program to be reviewed annually by Council as part of budget deliberations and asset management planning.

For all three of these major programs, project sites were prioritised in terms of matters such as public safety, failed infrastructure, high flood risk (in relation to the stormwater program) and the ability for the project to reduce ongoing maintenance and therefore provide savings in daily operational costs.  Whilst in some instances there may be areas meeting these criteria, projects also needed to fit into the set budget allocation.

“Council staff have undertaken detailed investigations of assets involved in these programs, and are to be commended for the professional approach taken in ensuring Council was presented with detailed, accurate sites for consideration,”  West Coast Mayor Phil Vickers said. 

Other matters discussed at the July Council meeting included:

• Approval of $500 to Granville Harbour teenager Oakley Smith to assist in covering costs associated with his selection in the National Under-15’s AFL School Boys Championships to be held in Western Australia
• Approval of in-kind support to Active Strahan to assist in running the Beach to Bay 2017 event
• Approval of over $3600 in applications received under the 2017-2018 Community Assistance Program
• A commitment to continue to liaise with LGAT, the State Government and other Councils regarding the finalisation of the proposed Cat Management legislative framework and to investigate the financial implications for implementing a full Cat Management program