News Alert |

The City of Ballarat welcomes the announcement of $4.5 million to implement the Rural Councils Transformation Program.

Ballarat, Ararat, Central Goldfields, Golden Plains, Hepburn and Pyrenees councils will share in the funding to improve a wide range of services to ratepayers and provide more than $11 million in productivity savings over five years.

Ballarat Mayor and Central Highlands Councils Victoria Chairman Samantha McIntosh said the Rural Councils Transformation Program would allow for even better and more affordable services for more than 230,000 residents across the six councils.

“This funding will allow us to provide an IT platform that will support a wide range of business, planning, waste, building, environmental health and community services in a much more effective manner,” Cr McIntosh said.

“This will be a massive transformative project. It will allow us to improve each council’s financial sustainability by reducing service duplication and improving service delivery across the region. 

“It will also allow the six councils to take a regional, rather than municipal, approach to delivering local services to their communities.

“I thank the State Government for the funding and look forward to enjoying resource sharing and joint service provision with our fellow councils for the benefit of so many residents across the Central Highlands region.”