Residents have their say on Wyndham council’s future spending

A group of residents were enlisted by Wyndham council to identify spending priorities over the next decade. Here’s what they said.

Wyndham council has vowed community feedback will “guide” funding priorities for the next decade on council services.

As part of Wyndham’s 10-year draft asset management plan, a group of 32 residents were enlisted to provide their priorities and opinions on services managed by council.

The group met five times over a two-week period in February and handed down their recommendations at Wyndham’s ordinary council meeting on April 27.

Speaking for the group, one resident said it was a challenging but rewarding process to deliberate on council’s services.

“One thing we all said was we want Wyndham to look towards a long-term growth plan and invest in a sustainable community,” he said.

In their feedback, the reference group said increased funding should be put into “essential services” including transport and roads, customer services, green living, child health and wellbeing, early education and care, waste and youth services.

“This will focus council’s efforts on managing the standards of the community‘s wellbeing,” another resident said.

“Without these the community would eventually fall apart.”

Conversely, the group argued council should cut funding to a number of services because they either didn’t generate revenue or were duplications of other services.

These services included place management, family services, festivals and events, media and marketing, and advocacy and intergovernmental relations.

At the meeting, councillors expressed support for the recommendations provided by the group, saying the expressed opinions will shape council’s asset management.

Mayor Peter Maynard said council had received rich feedback from the panel of residents, which would guide the city’s management of assets.

“Thank you for contributing to this important process,” he said.

“Your work is important and will help shape the future of Wyndham’s asset profile.”

Councillors unanimously endorsed the draft management plan for assets over the next decade, which includes an average spend of about $179 million each year to renew, maintain and upgrade existing assets worth $4.7 billion.

The draft plan will be on display for community feedback until May 25.