Yass council may be forced to amalgamate
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BREAKING: Yass Valley Council has been deemed financially unviable to remain a stand-alone council.
It joins 87 councils around the state to have their proposals for independence refused by the Independent Pricing And Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) this afternoon.
Neighbouring councils who proposed amalgamation, such as Harden, Boorowa and Young, were accepted.
Yass Valley councillors will now need to consider amalgamation with neighbouring shires, all of which appear to have higher rate prices than what YVC currently charges.
General manager David Rowe appeared to be reeling from the decision when Scoop spoke to him this afternoon.
General Manager David Rowe
“I’ve just received the report that we’re unfit, like all the other councils around here,” he said.
“I’ve got no comment until we digest it; it’s hot off the press to us too.
“I’ll need to discuss it with councillors before I make a comment.”
Council ran a series of Fit for the Future conferences earlier in the year at villages around the region in an effort to inform residents about the council’s options.
Part of that process was to provide residents with two options which included rate rises to bring it closer to IPART’s financial planning requirements.
After much heated debate, councillors rejected a rate rise solution.
Mayor Rowena Abbey
Mayor Rowena Abbey said tonight that while Yass proved it had the capacity and growth to thrive in the long-term, IPART felt it fell short on financial viability.
“Basically two thirds of the councils IPART examined have been designated as being unfit. [IPART’s decision is] based on two grounds; scale and capacity which they talked about early on, and we ticked that box – we had scale and capacity.
“But for financial capacity… we had a rate rise as part of the plan and then we decided not to go with it, and now IPART has come back that we are unfit financially.”
She stressed Yass Valley was far from the only council to have their submission rejected.
Council would be talking with neighbouring councils in the very near future, although no urgent meeting had been mooted.
“The only ones around here who have been deemed potentially fit are the ones who have offered to merge,” Mrs Abbey said.
“At this stage council and councillors need a chance to digest it all and we need to… talk to some of our neighbours about what we want to do.”
She said the upshot was they had been granted a 30-day grace period to revise their submissions and consider possible mergers.
Councillor Jasmin Jones said Goulburn would be top of her list if mergers were required. She felt submitting a proposal to IPART that focussed so heavily on rate rises was a mistake.
Councillor Jasmin Jones
“The main thrust of the submission needed to be more than just a rate rise… state government was looking for councils to address the issues of scale and capacity [and financial viability] to stand alone… By saying the only way to fix this was a rate rise, you’re not addressing the issue; it had to be a lot more creative than that,” she told Scoop.
Although the outcome was predictable, it would be a mistake to wipe Yass Valley off the map, she said.
“Its not like regional rural councils were ever going to fit the mould of the [IPART] parameters, and that’s something that came out of the submissions.”
“Everything was geared towards your bigger city councils. But that’s not to say that a rural regional council is not a valuable asset to the community.”
Just 37 per cent of proposals received for assessment were successful. IPART received 139 proposals from 144 councils.
Mrs Jones said Goulburn would be a better fit for amalgamation than Queanbeyan, based on its constituency and program of works.
She felt amalgamation, while not first preference, would still allow the possibility of having between four and six councillors absorbed into a new Goulburn council. First across the line last Yass Valley election included Mrs Jones’ running mate Geoff Frost, Cecil Burgess, Greg Butler and Michael McManus, she said.
“It would mean you’ll lose some of your representatives to form a new council, but everyone around here is in the same boat.”
Scoop received information IPART had rejected Yass Valley Council’s submission to remain independent in early August, however both mayor Rowena Abbey and general manager David Rowe couldn’t confirm at the time, saying no decisions would be announced until at least October.
A report can be found below or on the IPART web page.
