Council Driving Community Asset Sustainability
Tablelands Regional Council (TRC) is progressing to the next stage of a long-term, responsible approach to managing community facilities, reinforcing the commitment to asset sustainability, affordability for ratepayers and ensuring facilities meet the needs of the community now and into the future.
Throughout the past year Councillors have overseen significant work aligned with the TRC Community Facility Strategy, including the review and revision of the TRC Asset Management Policy, a comprehensive review of community land, buildings and facilities, and the implementation of an asset divestment process.
There are more than 290 community assets across the Tablelands region. Many of these are underutilised, not fit-for-purpose, close to end of life and not sustainable. Councillors recognise many of these challenges should have been addressed earlier and are now taking decisive steps to ensure Council’s asset base is sustainable for the long-term.
Divestment of surplus or under-performing facilities enables Council to direct resources toward priority infrastructure and services that deliver greater community benefit, while reducing ongoing operational and maintenance costs for ratepayers.
“This Council has committed to ensuring we are financially sustainable and that means facing up to legacy challenges,” said Mayor Marti.
“Councillors have a responsibility to ensure long term financial sustainability, and to manage community assets in a way that delivers value for money. “Improving asset sustainability will allow Council to invest in new infrastructure, and better maintenance of buildings we retain for the long term, and to strengthen service delivery and support growth across the region”.
As part of the ongoing community asset divestment process Councillors have committed to:
- Making divestment decisions that benefit to whole community.
- Recognising that different facilities require different considerations, options and approaches.
- Reducing costs to improve and strengthen Council’s financial sustainability.
- Increasing utilisation through shared use of facilities where appropriate.
- Actively engaging with existing users of the facilities and providing meaningful and timely support throughout the process.
- Keeping the community informed as decisions are made.
Mayor Marti emphasised that the Community Asset Divestment process is not a once-only initiative but rather an ongoing and iterative process embedded in Council’s Asset Management Policy and Community Facility Strategy. This reflects best practice and ensures that Council remains responsive as community needs evolve over time.
“In November last year, we asked the community to rank key facility attributes in order of importance. This feedback has informed an objective framework for assessing facilities against available resources and community priorities”.
The divestment process follows a structured five-step cycle:
- Review and identification of assets that may warrant divestment.
- An initial Council resolution to investigate identified assets.
- Comprehensive legal and other internal reviews.
- Engagement with those who use the land, buildings or facilities and providing them support through the process.
- A final Council resolution determining the outcome for the assets.
Mayor Marti stressed that asset divestment isn’t about ‘selling off assets’ or deciding which ones to decommission in the future, but considers a range of options including repurposing assets, shared use arrangements, and transferring facilities to organisations better placed to operate them sustainably and deliver improved outcomes for the community.
“We only have a small rate-payer base for the number of assets we maintain, and our ratepayers simply can’t afford the cost of maintaining so many buildings. We have to do the right thing for the benefit of our community and achieve a level our ratepayers can sustain”.
“Councillors have recently completed a review of facilities, aligned with step 1 of the process, and will be considering a report and recommendations at the Ordinary Council Meeting taking place 9am Thursday 22 January, in accordance with step 2 of the process cycle” he said.
Following this direction from Council, officers will progress through the next stages of due diligence and legal review, and engagement with users of the facilities. The community will be kept informed as the process continues.
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