All community feedback received through the submission process will be tabled at a council meeting. All submissions will also be reviewed and considered by Council as part of the ‘Councillor Submission Hearings’ (to be held on Tuesday 24 May 2022).

When making a submission online, you can elect to come and speak to your submission at the Hearing. All submissions will be responded to.

Overall market falls do not reduce rates.

Through the budget process Council determines how much rates are required to be collected each year, any increase is limited by the State Government Rates Cap. The total amount of rates to be collected is then divided by the total value of all rateable properties, which determines the rate in the dollar. The rate in the dollar is applied against the property valuation to determine the rates due.

Parks maintenance budgets are approved annually as part of Council’s formal budgetary process. Aligned policy actions outside recurrent programmed activities are subject to budgetary considerations and organisational priorities.

Brimbank City Council will continue to deliver the Financial Hardship Policy to support ratepayers that are experiencing financial hardship, by providing relief in the form of payment arrangements and deferrals, as well as provide additional pensioner rebates of $25 on top of the funding provided by the State Government.

Ratepayers having difficulty paying rates should contact Council’s Rates Department for help on (03) 9249 4000.

For the 2022/2023 year Council will have total borrowings of $87.09 million including proposed additional loans of $7 million to fund the capital works program.

The Draft Budget 2022/2023 includes the rate cap increase of 1.75 per cent across all properties announced by the Minister for Local Government, Shaun Leane, in December 2021.

A list of local roads that are included as part of the ‘Road Rehabilitation Program’ for the 2022/2023 year can be found in Appendix C (page 77) of the Draft Annual Budget 2022/2023 that can be viewed under the ‘Documents’ section of the budget ‘Your Say’ page.

Council’s Draft 10 Year Asset Plan (Draft Asset Plan) aims to more clearly articulate Council’s responsible and sustainable management of its public infrastructure assets over the next 10 years. The Draft Asset Plan includes information about maintenance, renewal, acquisition, expansion, upgrade, and disposal in relation to each class of infrastructure asset under the control of the Council.

In relation to Council’s resource allocation for parks in the draft 2022/2023 Annual Budget, Council has committed over $8.0 million for maintenance, approximately $1.2 million for renewal and upgrade works, and almost $4.3 million for the construction of new assets (noting Council has received substantial funding in 2022/2023 from the Federal and State Governments for the development of new parks assets).

In relation to Council’s service performance indicators, Section 2 of the Draft Asset Plan provides detailed Levels of Service standards for all asset types, including service performance measures for roads, parks, buildings and stormwater.

In relation to the implementation of Council’s policies, Council’s expectations are that all of its policies continue to be integrated, transparent and focused on delivering outcomes for the community. Under the Local Government Act 2020, there is a requirement for councils to provide the community better visibility across the various elements of its policies.

Council officers would be happy to discuss the above response in more detail at a time and place that is convenient for you.

Park upgrades are determined based on condition assessments, classification and distribution according to Council’s Creating Better Parks Policy and Plan which was originally adopted in 2008 and reviewed and updated in 2016. Generally playgrounds and other parks assets require renewal within 15 years.

By June 2022 Council will have upgraded 122 parks and spent around $44M. Most park upgrades have occurred through Council funding, but recently the State Government has provided funding for new Pocket Parks as part of their Suburban Park funding program. Council has also received money from Melbourne Water and Greater Western Water for stormwater harvesting infrastructure like at Dempster Reserve in Sunshine North and Balmoral Park in Derrimut.

There is no set template for how a Brimbank Budget proposal should be submitted, but there are a few things that may help councillors clearly understand what you are proposing.

This is not an exhaustive list, but some things that may help are:

• A clear summary of the problem you want fixed, including the ‘Who’, ‘What’, ‘When’, ‘Where’ and ‘How’s’ of the problem
• A clear articulation of what you want council to provide, and why
• Provide some clarity on the benefit your proposal brings to your organisation and/or the Brimbank community
• If at all possible, provide some quantifiable information, for example, but not limited to;
  • The number of people impacted by the issue,
  • The number of people to benefit from your proposal
  • The dollar impact of the issue you are trying to address, and how this was calculated (if possible)
  • The amount of funds you are asking for, and how this was calculated (if applicable/possible)
• Some timeframes – for example – How long has this been an issue, when would we like a solution