Council defers eight projects for future delivery

Alpine Shire Mayor John Forsyth said a range of factors have impacted Council’s ability to deliver certain projects, and prompted a review of projects for delivery this financial year.

“We’ve been constrained by a range of factors, including the global impacts of COVID-19 on supply chains, supplier capability and capacity and the availability of staff.

“These are the same issues that are impacting all businesses at the moment, so we’re certainly not alone.

“We have two significant projects -  Nimmo Pedestrian Bridge and  Myrtleford Landfill Rehabilitation - that we were were hoping to finish this financial year, but project delivery challenges have impacted on our program and it is now clear that these won’t be completed.

“We will need to revisit our approach to these projects to be able to deliver them successfully.”

After an assessment of the current capital works program, we have also opted to defer the following six projects to a future financial year, in order to focus resources and effort on successfully delivering projects which are underway:

The six projects being deferred represent around $500,000 of Council’s 2022/23 capital works program.

Cr Forsyth said the projects will be placed in the project pipeline for future delivery.

“We don’t believe that pausing these projects will cause any undue issues for the community or the organisation,” he said.

“The main implication is the possible increase in costs to deliver these projects in the future, caused by market and price fluctuations.

“We’re willing to take that risk if it means focusing on delivering the remainder of this financial year’s projects to a high standard.”