Annual Report 2018-19

»» Council passed a resolution in November 2018             »» Council has reviewed and updated its Community
   declaring Noosa as a Refugee Welcome Zone and               Engagement Policy. Significant community
   signed the Refugee Council of Australia’s Refugee           engagement projects in 2018/19 included:
   Welcome Zone Declaration.                                   • The draft Noosa Planning Scheme
»» Council has been active in supporting the local              • Proposal for a local law on advertising signage
   communities who have been affected by proposals for          • Events Policy
   the new Sunshine Coast Airport flight paths. Council         • Environment Strategy
   has worked closely with Flight Path Forum Inc. as
                                                                • Draft Noosa River Plan
   part of the community based campaign to review
   the proposed flight paths and improve the level of           • Pioneer Park Upgrade at Cooran
   community engagement by Airservices Australia as             • Hinterland Park at Cooroy.
   part of that process.
                                                            »» Council has undertaken numerous Library and Gallery
»» There has been significant progress on the                  programs to support our community. Our Library
   backlog of community lease renewals. Following              Services have physically issued over 437,982 items to
   deamalgamation, we inherited more than 28 expired           our community during the last 12 months.
   leases and had quite a number of other community
   groups with no formal tenure arrangements. By 30         »» Our Noosa Aquatic Centre, Noosa Leisure Centre and
   June 2019, there were no community groups without           The J all had outstanding years. In terms of numbers,
   tenure arrangements in place and only 5 leases still        the NAC had 240,893 visits which is just under last
   awaiting renewal.                                           year’s number of visits, however the NAC closed in
                                                               June 2019 for major scheduled maintenance of the
»» Council undertook an Expression of Interest process         pool, roof and deck structures. The Noosa Leisure
   for the upstairs section of the Peregian Beach Surf         Centre had 127,580 visits which is up 19.9% on last
   Lifesaving Club building which generated significant        year but some of that increase can be attributed
   public interest. Following that expression of interest      to extra visitors to the temporary library while the
   process, Council agreed to issue a 3 year trustee           Noosaville Library refurbishment was underway. The
   permit to Surf Lifesaving Queensland Sunshine Coast         J had 90,992 visits which is up nearly 4% on the
   Branch.                                                     previous year.

»» Council has undertaken two community Council             »» Council took the lead on lobbying for reform to how
   meetings during 2018/19. In November 2018, we               electronic gaming machine approvals are managed
   held a Council meeting at Pomona and in May                 in Queensland. Council was successful in gaining
   2019, we held a Council meeting at Cooran. This             support for the Local Government Association of
   continues Council’s ongoing commitment to open              Queensland to lobby on behalf of Queensland councils
   decision making and provides an opportunity for             for legislative reform. Council also joined the Gambling
   more members of the public to attend Council                Alliance Reform Group – a group of like-minded
   meetings. In keeping with our ongoing commitment            councils across Australia lobbying for policy changes
   to transparency to the community, during the year we        that would reduce the negative impact of gaming
   only closed Council meetings on two occasions to            machines on local communities.
   deal with confidential matters. Council also improved
   our community’s access to Council meetings by            »» Council continued to provide its community grant
   instituting live streaming of Council meetings and our      program supporting our community groups. During
   General Committee meeting from February 2019.               2018/19, we provided $893,406 in community grants
   These videos are also available on Council’s YouTube        to 147 recipients to support projects, acquisition of
   channel for later viewing.                                  equipment or events. Council staff also facilitated a
                                                               number of evening information sessions for community
»» Council completed a detailed review of an Events            organisations to help improve their governance and
   Policy for our Shire. This included an extensive            grant writing skills. Details of the grant categories and
   community engagement process which culminated in            amounts are set out in this annual report.
   the adoption of Noosa Events Policy which is designed
   to provide clarity about the number and location of
   annual events.


Noosa Council | 2018/2019 Annual Report                                                                       Page 19