Annual report adopted at Full Council meeting today
Date published: 27 October 2020
Delivering the national award-winning inaugural North Australian Festival of the Arts, completing construction of stage one of the Haughton Pipeline and rapidly implementing a COVID community support package were some of Townsville City Council’s achievements in 2019-20.
Council adopted its Annual Report for the period 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2020 at its meeting today.
The report highlights the significant achievements of the organisation, delivering high-quality services and finishing large community-building projects, despite the impacts of the unprecedented monsoon of 2019 and the COVID-19 global pandemic.
Acting Mayor Mark Molachino said the Annual Report demonstrated Council’s fiscal responsibility and ability to deliver high-quality services to the region.
“While we were hopeful that the challenging times were past us with the recovery from the monsoon well underway, COVID-19 had other plans for us and we implemented a support package immediately to assist the community with the impacts of the pandemic,” Cr Molachino said.
“Despite this and the subsequent hit to our revenue as a result of the pandemic, Council remained committed to being fiscally responsible and it is a credit to our leadership that we have been able to continue to deliver for the Townsville community.
The COVID-19 support package included a deferral of rates and utility charges, refunds for Council venue bookings in line with cancelled events, rent relief for commercial leases, payment terms for suppliers accelerated to 14 days and free parking in the CBD.
Business Services and Finance Committee chairperson Kurt Rehbein said the Annual Report shows the work that Council staff have put in to delivering services to the community.
“The 2019/2020 financial year was a huge one for finalising major projects across the city while also delivering our core services,” Cr Rehbein said.
“Despite the impacts of the monsoon and COVID-19, Council was able to deliver NAFA and HALO, finish the work on Central Park, and upgrade Palmer Street and Ogden Street.
“In addition to this, Council also maintained 2,652km of water mains and 1,364km of sewer mains, received 21,426 tonnes of green waste and 4,482 tonnes of recyclable waste at Council’s waste facilities and during the 2019 calendar year, 2,890 tonnes of waste was collected through kerbside collection.
“It is a credit to the leadership of Council that we were able to deliver all of this, while managing back-to-back disasters.
Other highlights from the 2019/2020 Annual Report include:
- 86% of expenditure was spent with local businesses
- 59 Indigenous businesses were added to procurement panels and spend with Indigenous businesses increased to $1.6 million
- Installation of 94 new CCTV cameras (increasing the total across the city to 503)
- E-petitions were launched on Council’s website
- Treated 42,000 megalitres of safe, high-quality potable water
- Treated 16,967 megalitres of wastewater
- Over 7,300 visits were made to waste facilities over the October 2019 free dump weekend
- Provided over $16.9 million in community assistance
To view the Annual Report in full, visit Corporate Information.
