LAUREN Jackson Sports Centre users and Doctors Point residents are among some unexpected beneficiaries from some last-minute changes made to Albury Council's $126 million draft budget adopted on Monday night.
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Cr Henk van de Ven successfully made a string of alterations to the budget including a freeze on existing charges at the sports centre for the 2017-18 financial year and the potential introduction of a family pass for two adults and two children for all sports played at the venue.
Also, fearing a repeat of the extensive flooding experienced last year, Cr van de Ven proposed the Doctors Point Road emergency access improvements be brought forward and the protective screening on the fifth level of the Volt Lane car park be fully completed ahead of the motel being built next door to the Australian Taxation Office building.
The Monument Hill landscape plan will also be advanced sooner than originally planned and the Albury Badminton Association will gain $1500 in sponsorship for its annual tournament.
Cr Darren Cameron also succeeded in having the charge for taking up to 200kg of mixed waste to the Albury tip reduced from the current $15 to $5.
But he bombed out with another attempt to make it easier for residents to have a weekly red bin collection and a 25 per cent across the board reduction in present fees at the Glenmorus Gardens cemetery.
Cr Cameron did win support for a “comprehensive report” on prices charged at the cemetery.
Cr van de Ven justified his last-minute changes by stating they would cost only $18,000, but he couldn't support the significant reduction on the council bottom line with the cemetery charges reduction.
“These were thought through over a period of time,” he said.
Budget notes show there was a $145,576 reduction in income at the sports stadium last financial year due to reduced participation, but the figure was offset partially by a $91,582 reduction in expenditure.