Council to host open forums for the first time and additional meetings confirmed

Central Coast Council will host an open forum followed by the traditional public forum before every ordinary Council meeting from Monday 23 November 2020.

 Members of the public will be able to address Council, at the open forum, on any Council related matter they wish, but must register and will be limited to three minutes each. The open forum will start at 5.30pm and have a maximum of 10 speakers each meeting. 

 This will be followed by the public forum (where members of the public register to speak on an item that is on the Council agenda) from 6pm and the Ordinary Meeting from 6.30pm. Public forums will continue to be live streamed, open forums will not.

“At the open forum members of the community will get to bring matters before Council that aren’t on the agenda – it may be a burning issue that matters to them that Council should know about,” Interim Administrator Persson said.

“I look forward to learning a lot more about the Central Coast and the community through this Forum.

Two new Ordinary Meeting dates have been confirmed for Monday 23 November 2020 and Monday 25 January 2021 in addition to the meeting schedule adopted at the 26 October 2020 meeting.

All Ordinary Meetings will continue to be webcast and will be held at the Wyong Chambers, with limited capacity, until the public health order is lifted.

The full meeting schedule and details of how to register at an open or community forum can be found by searching ‘meetings’ at centralcoast.nsw.gov.au  

Stage two of Council’s Business Recovery Plan underway 

Council’s focus continues to be on reducing expenditure, arranging financing, raising additional income, monitoring incoming cash flow, performing cashflow forecasts and ensuring a more sustainable cash preservation.

$7 million of spending will be reallocated after the ongoing financial review showed these capital items should have been funded from Waste, Water and Sewer Funds rather than the General Fund to better reflect the use of those items.

Council has identified over $30M worth of property assets that may be considered for sale within the next twelve months. Any sale of assets would need to be a resolution of Council.

Council is also working with its financiers to organise additional financial arrangements.

Interim Administrator Dick Persson said he was determined to get to the bottom of the financial situation and was keen to progress solutions as soon as possible.

“This is a difficult time for our community, our staff and the Central Coast,” Mr Persson said.                                                                                             

“Council is continuing to monitor our cash position, payments and restrictions and communicating with suppliers.

“I am pleased we have appointed such a competent Chief Financial Officer and I look forward to working with her in the months ahead.

“We are determined to meet all our obligations to our staff, suppliers and the community.

KPMG have been formally engaged to complete the forensic audit. The initial phase of engagement is expected to be completed by 13 November and historic analysis will take a further 6 to 8 weeks with findings available mid-late January 2021.

Mountain biking to be discussed in the new year

The Central Coast community will have another chance to comment on mountain biking in the region with a discussion paper to be released in early 2021.

The discussion paper is the result of a feasibility study that looked at the role Council’s natural reserves may play, protection of high conservation and heritage value, unauthorised trails and the safe use of reserves by all visitors.

Interim administrator Dick Persson said the discussion paper provided a good basis for community consideration.

“The discussion paper provides findings on the supply of mountain biking trails, both authorised and unauthorised, community requirements and concerns as well as case studies from other regions,” said Mr Persson.

“We are looking to take a collaborative approach that promotes the tourism opportunities that mountain biking brings but also deals with unauthorised trails and their impact on our local environment.

“I would invite the community to take the opportunity to digest this report over the summer months, ready to provide feedback when public exhibition opens early next year.”