Strategic services

Council’s 2010/11 Budget dedicates funds to maintain key regional economic, corporate, community and natural environment planning projects.

Strategic Services portfolio leader Cr Noel Strohfeld said Budget funding would be allocated to advance regional economic plans, review council’s corporate risk management and improve regional disaster management support and training.

Cr Strohfeld said a Toowoomba Regional Economic Development Strategy would be completed in the first half of 2011.“This document will outline key economic opportunities for the Toowoomba region and address how residents can take advantage of projected growth in business activity,” he said.

“The Toowoomba Region Business Capability Study will prove a most useful resource. The study will detail local business responses to skill shortages, imports and exports to the region and the capacity to service major regional projects. This should be completed by September this year.”

Cr Strohfeld said council would refer to the study to determine priority development projects. He said it also would provide input to the Toowoomba Regional Economic Development Strategy.

He said the Surat Basin Energy and Mining Expo to be held in Toowoomba on June 22 and 23 next year would define the Toowoomba region’s role in the sector. “This nationally important trade expo is being run by Australian Events, in conjunction with Surat Basin Corporation and council. It is expected to become a major event on the resource industry expo calendar,” Cr Strohfeld said.

“Council and the Economic Development Board will continue investigations into the feasibility of forming a Regional Economic Development organisation. Any new entity would cover the broader Darling Downs and Surat Basin region to provide a single voice on major development issues.

“Toowoomba will attract additional national attention when it hosts the Sister Cities Australia 2011 annual conference. More than 120 delegates from Australia and overseas will gather in the city. Our Sister City connections with Paju, South Korea, Takatsuki in Japan and New Zealand’s Wanganui contribute a great deal to the culture, education and economy in all our regions. There are many wider business and social benefits to be developed and enjoyed by nurturing these international relationships.

“Delegates will visit us this year and I would expect there would be reciprocal visits.”

Cr Strohfeld said council would continue to fund and, be actively involved in, disaster management across the region.

He said the Natural Disaster Resilience Program had contributed $30,000 to deliver a disaster risk assessment for council. The project requires council to contribute $15,000,” Cr Strohfeld said.

“A new SES headquarters will be built at Cecil Plains with more than $46,000 allocated from the State Emergency Services subsidy program. Cecil Plains is home to the region’s second largest SES group.”

Cr Strohfeld said council would provide ongoing maintenance to facilities for 10 SES groups. He said this also covered maintenance and programmed replacement of 12 vehicles, 24 trailers, three boats and a vast array of motorised equipment.

“Council is determined to support the valuable work of 130 SES personnel, who provided 15,500 hours of community support in the past year,” he said.

“Council will develop an enterprise risk management framework and identify areas of strategic risk for the organisation.

“Reporting procedures and improved precautionary measures will be established to monitor potential risks.”

Cr Strohfeld said council would continue to rationalise Local Laws, policies and procedures. He said Local Laws would be reduced from 185 to six and 126 Subordinate Local Laws would be refined to 35 in the coming year.

Similarly, council has reduced the number of policies and procedures from more than 500 to 270 and will continue work in the next year to refine this number to 125.

Cr Strohfeld said the Strategic Planning branch would continue detailed work profiling projected regional climate characteristics for future years.

The Liveable Streetscapes and Neighbourhoods in Future Climates project is supported by council, with funding from the Australian Government’s Water for the Future initiative through the Strengthening Basin Communities program.

Cr Strohfeld said the next phase of the project to model future climate data for the region would provide information about regional rainfall and temperature variation. He said this information would influence council plans for selecting the most suitable street tree species. “This climate data will help council develop a master plan for the most appropriate street trees across the region.”

Cr Strohfeld said Strategic Services would continue to support all council operations. “Much like the radar on a large ship, our efforts are a vital part of assisting the full spectrum of council’s services and activities.”