FAQs

Wingecarribee 2041 is a long-term Community Strategic Plan. It represents the vision, aspiration, goals, priorities and challenges for our community. The purpose of Wingecarribee 2041 is to:

• describe the vision and goals the community has for this Shire
• outline the strategies to achieve the vision and goals
• provide long-term focus for decision making and resource allocation
• provide a basis for measuring our progress
• provide an opportunity for community participation in decision making
• address social, economic, environmental and civic leadership issues.

Wingecarribee 2041 was developed by the community and is maintained by Council. It is a ‘whole of community’ plan in which all levels of government, business, education institutions, community groups and individuals have an important role to play.

Council’s Delivery Program and Operational Plan are our response to delivering Wingecarribee 2041.

View the Community Strategic Plan here.

This Delivery Program outlines the Principal Activities that Council will undertake over the next two years to progress our Community Strategic Plan: Wingecarribee 2041. It covers the full depth and breadth of the services we provide across the Shire: from waste management and water services to the provision of community facilities and infrastructure.

• Draft Delivery Program 2023-2025 and Draft Operational Plan 2023/2024
  • Attachment 1: Draft Budget 2023-2024
  • Attachment 3: Draft Revenue Policy Fees and Charges 2023-2024

Operational Plan and Budget 2023/24 outlines the priority actions and projects to be delivered throughout the financial year and how, and to what level, these activities will be resourced. It is a companion document to our Delivery Program 2023-2025 which sets out the principal activities and core business to be delivered by Council between now and the end of June 2025.

The purpose of this Operational Plan and Budget is to provide a clear view of the actions, projects, programs and budget to be committed over the 2023/24 financial year.

This Resourcing Strategy helps us to prioritise resources and map out resource allocation over the next four to 10 years. Together with our Delivery Program 2023-2025 and our annual Operational Plan and Budget, it provides the community with visibility of how and when services and projects will be delivered and the costs. It also indicates what may need to take priority based on what is most important and urgent.

The Resourcing Strategy consists of four parts:

Part 1 – Long Term Financial Plan 2023-2033

Part 2 – Asset Management Strategy 2023-2033

Part 3 – Digital Strategy 2023-2025

Part 4 – Workforce Management Strategy 2023-2025

All feedback and submissions received will be considered and reported to Council in June 2022. If you make a formal submission you will receive a response from Council.

We invite you to have your say on the draft Operational Plan 2022/23 from 22 April until 10 June 2023. You can provide your feedback via:

Online: Go to the submission tab and complete an online submission form

Email: mail@wsc.nsw.gov.au

Write to: General Manager, Wingecarribee Shire Council, PO Box 141, Moss Vale NSW 2577.

The maximum amount that Council is able to increase the overall land rates income is capped by the rates peg limit set each year by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (‘IPART’). This rate peg is 4.1% for the 2023/24 year. The general rule of thumb is that if your land value has increased by the average for the land rating category, you can expect that your land rates will only increase by the rate peg of 4.1%. If your land value has increased by more than the average, your rates will increase by a proportion more than the rate peg. There are also instances where the land rates decrease because the land value has increased by less than the average.

As a guide, the average increase across each land rating category is as follows:

• Residential 74.4%
• Residential Renwick 58.5%,
• Business 47.3%
• Farmland 90.5%
• Mining -12.5%

Please contact Council’s Revenue team on 02 4868 0888 if you still have concerns.

Income derived from Fees and Charges contributes to Council’s general income that is used to deliver community projects, respond to community needs, and provide residents with a safe and enjoyable environment. Council has a diverse range of services, buildings, parks and infrastructure which rely on Fees and Charges to continue to function well. Where fees are not priced with due consideration to costs incurred and market pricing, this impacts on the overall services Council can deliver.

The Draft 2023/24 Fees and Charges were generally indexed by 7% in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). However, each fee or charge proposed has been reviewed individually to ensure it is in line with Council’s pricing policy principles and, where further analysis was necessary, Council has reviewed the Fees and Charges of other councils within NSW to benchmark these, or to private service providers where this is an option for the community.

New fees are proposed for services offered by Council to ensure Council recovers the partial or full cost of offering these services in order to limit the impact that offering such services has on the community. This ensures that the pressures to provide additional services is alleviated from using land rates income and focusing on users paying for the service they require. An area of interest has been Development Assessment & Compliance as Council has identified service fees are not in line with Council’s Pricing Policy. Council has reviewed best practice in NSW councils to determine appropriate new and amended fee categories to cover costs of providing these services.

• To encourage responsible disposal of e-waste and the impact to our unique local environment, Council has proposed to provide e-waste disposal services free of charge.
• Council has proposed to keep Family Day Care and Out of School Hours Care (OOSH) costs at the same rate as the previous year to assist families with escalating costs of living.
• Council has proposed to reduce the application fees for the closure of unformed roads to make the process more affordable to residents. Council will use funds generated from this to provide additional funding for the maintenance of the road network.