General News
31 October, 2019
Annual Report highlights MSC’s success
LAST week’s monthly Mareeba Shire Council meeting saw council adopt its Annual Report for the 2018/19 financial year.
LAST week’s monthly Mareeba Shire Council meeting saw council adopt its Annual Report for the 2018/19 financial year.
Mayor Tom Gilmore said the report demonstrates the maturity of the organisation and the development of community assets, whilst acknowledging budgetary constraints drawn from Council’s knowledge of the capacity of the community to pay for the level of service provided.
“Mareeba Shire Council has come a long way in the five years since its inception on 1 January 2014 and our vision of ‘a growing, confident and sustainable Shire’ represents the Council’s core values, principles and guides the priorities and deliverables of this highly successful organisation,” he said.
“During these past five years much has been done to stabilise the Shire’s finances to identify and reduce risk to the organisation and to establish a culture of careful future planning as the basis of sound decision-making.
“These plans ensure that the organisation provides true value for ratepayers’ money, based upon scrupulous attention to detail and careful scheduled maintenance of Shire assets.”
When tabling the Annual Report, Councillor Gilmore said this was his last annual report, and he is not seeking re-election at the upcoming Local Government election in March 2020.
“The Annual Report highlights where targets have been met as the organisation continues to deliver services for the growing community,” he said.
“Without the support from the Australian and the Queensland Governments, the Shire and ratepayers would struggle to fund critical infrastructure including the upgrade of bridges, roads and community facilities.
“The Australian and Queensland governments have afforded this community grants and subsidies over the past five years in excess of $104 million to assist in the replacement of aged assets, such as sewerage and water infrastructure and the redevelopment of the Mareeba Airport.”
Council also released a Community Outcomes Report attached to the Annual Report; a retrospective since the new Mareeba Shire Council was established in 2014. The document reviews some of the highlights which enabled Council to deliver local government services and manage assets to meet the most important community needs.
