Toowoomba Regional Council to focus on asset renewal of ageing infrastructure in new budget

The Toowoomba Regional Council will take a “renew over new” approach for its $187m capital works program in the new budget. See the key projects here:

Deputy Mayor Geoff McDonald.

The Toowoomba Regional Council will again focus on renewing its ageing infrastructure over delivering new projects in its latest budget.

Continuing a trend started several years ago, about half of the council’s $187m capital works program, announced in the 2021-22 budget on Wednesday, will go towards asset renewal.

The council will achieve an asset sustainability ratio of 88 per cent, which is calculated by tracking renewal expenditure against its depreciation costs.

This ratio is basically in line with guidelines set by the State Government.

Deputy mayor and finance chair Geoff McDonald said the council would face major headaches in the coming years if it failed to renew key water and wastewater infrastructure, some of which was more than 60 years old.

“The capital works budget of $187m is split across three areas — upgrades, renewal of assets and the third is new projects,” he said.

“Our main focus for this year, like last year, is around the renewal of assets.

“The reason that’s important is we have $5.4b in assets and we have ageing assets.

“We need to sit between 70 per cent and 90 per cent for asset sustainability, so this is a great outcome.”

Just $28m will be spent on new projects, the most notable of which includes the $8m Highfields Library.

“When you look at individual projects, the Highfields Library is the key one,” Mr McDonald said.

“This funding in this budget will complete that project in this financial year.

“The other big project is the Soldiers Memorial Hall building upgrade, which together with funding from the federal government is worth about $3.8m.”

For more details on projects being funded, head to thechronicle.com.au.