Hard copies can be viewed at Council’s Customer Service at 65 Homebush Road Strathfield or Strathfield Library, 65-67 Rochester Street Homebush during opening hours. Please contact Cathy Jones on cathy.jones@strathfield.nsw.gov.au or 9748 9937 if you require a print version of a document.

Council’s budget is comprised of a Statement of Revenue Policy which includes details of operating income and expenditure, proposed capital works and the schedule of fees and charges for the next financial year.

IPART is yet to determine Council’s application for a Special Rate Variation (SRV) and minimum rates applications. Following discussions with the Office of Local Government, alternate rating structures have been included in the draft Operational Plan. These alternate structures are:

• Neither the SRV nor minimum rates applications are approved – 3.7% rate peg only
• DWM adjustment only approved in addition to the rate peg and minimum rate of $1,040 approved
• DWM adjustment only approved in addition to the rate peg, minimum rate not approved so the maximum minimum rate of $590 introduced.

These scenarios will provide an indication to the community of potential outcomes of Council’s applications.

A more detailed description of the draft 2023-2024 budget is set out in the Report to Council dated 2 May 2023 and the draft Operational Plan 2023-2024. Both documents are available from the document library on this site.

To support the goals and strategies of the CSP, Council adopted a new Delivery Program for the period 2022 to 2026. This was operational from 1 July 2022. Following an extensive review of Council’s financial sustainability, in November 2022, Council resolved to apply to IPART for a Special Rate Variation (SRV). The Delivery Program 2022-2026, Operational Plan 2022-2023 and Long-Term Financial Plan were reviewed and amended to align with the SRV proposal. The amended plans were adopted in February 2023.

At the time of preparation of the Operational Plan and Budget for 2023-2024, the SRV application has not been determined. Therefore, the draft Operational Plan and Budget includes possible scenarios which may be determined by IPART by June 2023.

Council is anticipating determination of its applications on 8 June 2023. If the applications are not approved, or approved in part, Council will need to reduce its operating and capital expenditure budgets in 2023-2024. This results from the need for Council to proceed with the $550 domestic waste management change regardless of the outcome of the applications. Based on the current draft budget, expenditure reductions in the order of $4M will need to be found which will inevitably impact on services and service levels.

The Fees and Charges schedule is part of Council’s Statement of Revenue Policy. It details how much Council will charge for a range of services in the 2023-2024 financial year including (as examples) hiring of sportsgrounds, halls, library charges, development and planning charges etc.

Council assesses and considers the submissions made during the public exhibition period and a summary of the outcomes from this process will be included in the report to Council. Information that identifies individual personal information is not published in the Council report.

The report will be presented to the June 27 2023 Council meeting. This will be called as an extraordinary meeting. The agenda and business paper is published at least 3 days prior to the meeting.