Council performance – major milestone reached

A feature of Central Highlands Regional Council’s second performance report for the 2019-20 financial year was the launch of council’s new enterprise system in November.

Chief Executive Officer Scott Mason presented the report to council at its first meeting of the new year, saying that this major milestone celebrated thousands of hours of dedicated effort by the organisation.

‘This new system is expected to result in many changes to the way we do things; it’ll improve our efficiency and interaction with our customers,’ Mr Mason said.

In his address to council, Mr Mason said the organisation’s financial situation is ‘generally in accordance with the budget’.

‘The main variances relate to stronger saleyard throughput and quarry sales, delays in expected grant funding, and an underspend in private works expenditure,’ he explained.

The report also reveals that the implementation of the waste-levy during the second quarter was another highlight and challenge for the council and the region’s communities.

‘Getting the region waste-levy ready was a large undertaking that has meant quite a lot of change for the community and our staff,’ Mr Mason said.

‘We’ve installed surveillance cameras at 14 sites, completed signage and fencing, changed to a key-access-only system in some cases and visited with lots of people to explain what’s happening.

‘A good news statistic around waste this quarter is that council is on track with its target to divert 10-15 percent of recoverable material from landfill,’ Mr Mason said.

‘At this stage, we’ve achieved a 10 percent reduction, which shows that the resource recovery areas at the landfill sites is working.’

Highlights of the quarter two performance report include: