2025-26 Draft Annual Business Plan & Budget

The Strategic Overview is a set of guiding principles, a high-level view of Council’s overall direction and priorities, which includes reducing debt. It therefore underpins everything Council does, including its objectives and the activities to achieve those objectives. We can see this is not clear on page 3 and will update to ensure better communication of the overall direction and priorities, which includes reducing debt.

The reduction in user charges - from $1,909,084 in 2024-25 to $1,121,337 in 2025-26 - is primarily due to the change in the operational structure of the Normanville Jetty Holiday Park. The Management Licence Agreement sees Belgravia collect the income and pay Council a fixed management licence fee and a percentage of revenue. This is then accompanied by Belgravia paying for the majority of the operating costs associated with the park, which means Council has a lower expense line in the Materials Contracts & Other Expenses relating to the Normanville Jetty Holiday Park.

The outsourcing of the Parks (NJHP & RBCG) has contributed to a reduction in operating costs, commensurate with the reduction in user charges. The ‘Materials, Contracts & Other Expenses’ line reflects changes across the entire organisation, not just the Parks operations.

The outsourcing of the parks (NJHP & RBCG) to Belgravia has not cost ratepayers/Council the figure quoted in the question. It has instead allowed Council to reduce both income and expenses related to caravan park operations, reduce operational risks, and allow staff to refocus on other priorities.

Council is required to prepare General Purpose financial statements and financial information in accordance with the Model Set of Financial Statements set for the South Australian Local Government sector. At the end of the financial year Council reports all expenditure by Function in Note 12 of the audited Financial Statements.

The budget is not prepared in this format. However, a question on notice at the May 2025 Council meeting supplied the 2025-26 budget for Materials Contracts & Other Expenses in greater detail. Please refer to Question on Notice response to Item 10.1 – Attachment A.

The 2025-26 budget for Capital and Operating Projects is supplied in the Draft Annual Business Plan. There are 3 tables, one for Operating Projects, one for Capital – New and one for Capital – Renewal.

A monthly finance report goes to Council reporting the actual income and expenditure.

The ERP System Upgrade tender process dates back to pre 2022, at which time a business case was supplied to Council and the budget was included and adopted in previous budgets. The project paused and the funds were deferred to future years through Council’s standard carry forward process. Council has a 5 year contract with the new service provider to deliver the upgrade and use the new system for a min of 5 years.

In 2024-25 there were 3976 rateable residential properties. The draft data for the 2025-26 Annual Business Plan and Budget has 3974 rateable residential properties, a reduction of two. Please note that the data used was received from the Valuer General in March 2025. The final data from the Valuer General will not be provided to Council until late June, so this is subject to change. Rateable property numbers (across all categories) are also affected by amalgamations and sub-divisions.