A $335,000 boost to Moyne Shire finances from caravan parks so far this year has helped to put the council on track to be debt free by June.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Community and corporate services director Kevin Leddin told councillors at the monthly meeting Moyne Shire's operating budget was "tracking favourably" seven months into its financial year budget.
"There've been good results to date in our caravan parks, so some revenues are up and our child care area is performing above budget," Mr Leddin said.
He said caravan parks had performed strongly with revenue up $335,000 on budget after seven months.
"With Folk Festival and Easter to come, the full-year results look promising," he said.
Warrnambool City Council revealed that revenue for council-owned holiday parks was currently $175,000 ahead of budget to the end of February.
"The holiday parks operate at close to capacity over every summer," the council said.
"The bushfires severely impacting eastern Victoria may have resulted in more families choosing the south-west for a summer break."
Mr Leddin said that Moyne's child care results were driven by attendee numbers and the year-to-date results reflect strong enrolments across the council-operated child care facilities.
Moyne has already forked out $8.9 million of the $25 million set aside to fund more than 100 projects in its capital works program. Most projects are set to be carried out in the last half of the financial year.
"Our staff have a pretty massive task in delivering that program," Mr Leddin said.
"As a result of that position, our cash is strong. We know we'll be debt-free by June. All of our financial indicators are strong at the moment. They'll continue to be that way as we go into future budgets.
"Asset renewal is one that we keep on reminding ourselves is a moving beast but that means we continue to get a low-risk rating from the Victorian Auditor General."
Cr Colin Ryan said the council was in a very good financial position, highlighted by councillors' to consider expenditure requests throughout the year.
Cr Ryan added a variation to the financial report at the meeting to include $50,000 to fund the Commercial Road masterplan.
He said the money would be used to pay for a Powercor survey of the overhead power lines, with remaining funding used to develop the master plan for Commercial Road.
"We seek to do it now rather than the second half of the year because it allows us to take advantages of any funding programs that become available," he said.
Have you signed up to The Standard's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in the south-west.