Ballarat City Council gets on with delivering for the community

Ballarat City Council last night continued to get on with its core business of delivering for the community, approving a wide range of strategic partnerships, policies, and strategies, and adopting a Ballarat Airport position.
Mayor Cr Daniel Moloney said the large agenda of 20 items showed Council was determined to keep delivering for its community across a wide range of issues.
“We debated a Ballarat Airport position, decided a way forward for our vital events program and visitor economy, entered strategic partnerships with valuable partners Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute and Sovereign Hill, joined the global Welcoming Cities Network and adopted Mayor and Councillor allowances, along with several procedural items and the adoption of our Integrated Strategic Planning Framework,” Cr Moloney said.
“This Council wants to get on with its core business of providing community services and the full agenda from last night’s meeting would show we are doing exactly what we are elected to do.
“From last night’s resolutions, Ballarat will benefit in a wide range of economic, tourism and cultural ways.”

1.    Ballarat Airport
Council voted to confirm proposed Ballarat Airport runway upgrade next steps.
This includes accepting a $5 million Regional Airports Program grant towards the Ballarat Airport Runway Upgrade Project stage one - matched by a $5 million Council contribution - and starting a detailed upgrade design, tender and construction.
Council will also lobby the State Government and/or Federal Government to recognise the Ballarat West Employment Zone Master Plan and Liberator Drive’s significance in delivering the runway extension.
It also endorsed preparing a detailed governance proposal for a more commercially focused Ballarat Airport governance and management structure, including a board of directors with commercial aviation and broader business expertise.
Mayor Cr Daniel Moloney said the community was “looking to Ballarat City Council to show leadership on this project but it was also important it was transparent the commitment was only for $5 million for stage one of the airport upgrade”.

2.    Events Strategy 2018-2028 and Visitor Economy Strategy 2021-24
The Events Strategy was created by Ballarat Regional Tourism in 2017 but, due to the changing COVID-19 environment, required a review.
This 10-year strategy will guide Ballarat’s event attraction, development, and delivery. It will ensure the city’s event program is contemporary and developed for both new and current audiences. 
The Visitor Economy Strategy 2021-24 will complement the 10-year Traveller Experience Plan, designed to direct Ballarat’s tourism growth and development.
The Visitor Economy Strategy will reactive Ballarat’s visitor economy and assist with its recovery through:
•    Growing visitation spend and increasing regional Victoria’s visitation market share
•    Transforming experiences through innovation and investment
•    Delivering high quality experiences and sharing knowledge and resources to promote the city

3.    Strategic partnerships
Council voted to enter into a $160,000, two-year strategic partnership with Sovereign Hill and a $135,000, three-year strategic partnership with the Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute.
Under the Sovereign Hill partnership, Council will pay $80,000 in both 2020/21 and 2021/22. It follows the completion of a three year, $80,000 strategic partnership that finished in 2019/20. 
Sovereign Hill is Ballarat’s principal tourism attraction, is a key employer and contributes significantly to the region’s economic and social fabric.
As part of the agreement, Sovereign Hill will provide co-operative marketing with Council, including the Winter Wonderlights Festival, and the implementation of Council’s Visitor Economy Strategy and Traveller Experience Plan, plus one annual community-based exhibition such as “Celebrating Sebastopol”.
The Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute strategic partnership will include $45,000 annually between 2021/22 and 2023/24 and will benefit Council via increased community events, creative and live music industry employment opportunities, arts precinct group collaboration, volunteer and work experience opportunities, providing a heritage-ambient Arts and Heritage Precinct venue for events, conferences and performances, economic benefits, and continued leverage of the BMI’s standing to attract government and philanthropic grants.

4.    Welcoming Cities Network
Council has approved a request from the Intercultural Advisory Committee to enter into a Welcoming Cities Network membership, and to begin work towards the first accreditation level.
This network consists of 250 global councils and is built around:
•    Knowledge sharing
•    Partnership development
•    Celebrating success
•    Standard and accreditation, which benchmark cultural diversity, including policies and practices
Accreditation over six levels will include leadership, social and cultural inclusion, economic development, learning and skills development, civic participation and places and spaces.
Cr Moloney said: “This membership will be a good return on our investment, particularly through knowledge sharing. I am very proud Ballarat will be a Welcoming City, especially for refugees.”

5.    Adoption of Mayor and Councillor allowances
Council has endorsed the setting of Mayor and Councillor allowances at the top level of category three local government areas (in which the City of Ballarat sits) as $100,434 for the mayoral allowance and $31,444 for Councillor allowances, plus 9.5 per cent as a Commonwealth Superannuation guarantee equivalent.
Cr Moloney said: “We need these allowances to be ultimately determined at a State Government or independent level so we as Councillors as not being put in a compromising position all the time.”