2020-07-13 General Committee Agenda

GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                                       13 JULY 2020


Attachment 2 to this report sets out the list of projects that our Council has submitted under this
program. This attachment is in two parts – a list of projects funded under the allocation of $2M
and three projects identified for the competitive element of the additional funding.

Note that for both the Works for Queensland and Unite and Recover funding, some project totals
incorporate a number of sub projects (e.g. the funding allocation for refurbishment of public toilets)
and in those cases, the attachments have identified the specific sub projects that make up that
total. Note that Council staff are still working through the specific locations for the environmental
conservation projects on Council Land/ Reserves and this information will be provided to
Councillors when finalised.

C.     Tourism Infrastructure Grants

The State government has announced $25 million for grants towards the development of tourism
infrastructure. This process requires eligible organisations to lodge expressions of interest (EOI)
with those submissions to be shortlisted. Shortlisted submissions will then be requested to provide
a more detailed proposal.

Once again, very tight timeframes have been provided as part of a broader intent by the State
government to fast track grant application processes to get funding on the ground as soon as
possible.

Our Council lodged an Expression of Interest for this funding for $1.3M for part of the hinterland
tracks and trails project. The masterplan for the long-term development of the hinterland tracks
and trails has recently been completed as a joint project between Tourism Noosa, Noosa Council
and the Noosa Biosphere Reserve Foundation. A copy of that Masterplan has been lodged in
support of our EOI.

The focus of this particular grant application is on tracks and associated support infrastructure
between Pomona and Cooran as per attachment 3. It is understood that this particular grant
program will have future rounds and further elements of the masterplan can be submitted at that
time. At the time of this report, we have not yet been advised whether or not our EOI will be
shortlisted for further consideration.

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the excellent work undertaken by staff to have projects shovel ready
in anticipation of funding flowing from the State and Commonwealth governments. The timeframes
for response to many of these grant opportunities has been incredibly tight and involved
considerable work. We have been able to maximise opportunities at this time due to a lot of hard
work by many of our staff.

Previous Council Consideration
Nil.

Finance
Other than the Commonwealth bridge renewals program, the direct costs of the projects identified
to be delivered under the funding programs outlined above are fully funded by either the State or
Commonwealth governments with the exception of some overhead costs such as procurement,
governance and financial management. Whole of life cost implications for new or upgrade projects
(i.e. depreciation, operations and maintenance) will need to be considered and factored into future
Council budgets where applicable, although strategic decisions were made regarding project
selection to ensure whole of life cost impacts for ratepayers were minimised.


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