Service in focus despite budget cuts

The 2026-27 budget has been in focus at Hilltops Council's ordinary monthly meeting on Wednesday with several areas identified for cost savings measures. As such the council expects the overall forecast consolidated budget result, after capital grants and contributions, to be a surplus of $1.7 million. In a video to Facebook following the meeting, Mayor Brian Ingram said like all local government areas things are tight and there are deficits all around, so they needed to be smarter at what they do and be as efficient as they can be. As such there were some changes to the budget and draft operational plan 2026/27.before it had come back to Council to be voted on at Wednesday's meeting. In the budget put to Hilltops Council, it was stated a comprehensive review of operational efficiencies and cost-saving measures across the organisation has commenced. Key areas of focus include reducing reliance on external contractors and consultants, particularly in the areas of engineering consultancy, traffic control, vegetation management, earthmoving and haulage services. Council has already commenced actions to reduce earthmoving and haulage costs and has been consulting with the Environment Protection Authority regarding remediation obligations and associated operational requirements. Further work will also be undertaken to review the priority, scope and timing of capital works projects to determine whether any projects may be deferred or reprogrammed in line with Council’s financial capacity and strategic priorities. Within the budget, it was noted preliminary investigations indicate that the implementation of these measures could deliver annual savings in the order of approximately $2 million. Detailed analysis is currently underway to assess the potential impacts of these initiatives on service delivery levels and the delivery timeframes of capital works program. The budget and operational plan also stated that it is important that the council and community understand that cost saving measures mean that Hilltops Council cannot respond immediately to every request, and that service expectations may need to be adjusted accordingly. During the council's meeting, Councillor Tony Flanery said the budget report notes some of the applications of the position they find themselves in where they are trying to cut some of the expenditure and remove the extent of the deficit. He highlights that they cut some of the road funding allocations and the commentary there about preventative maintenance and council being less responsive to customer requests, including councillors, and that other than urgent safety concerns that delays would be expected. Cr Flanery said that he would hope and expect that despite some of the funding cuts that efficiency gains would pick up. "I certainly wouldn't support the preventative maintenance being reduced. I think that is a backwards step that actually leads to repair and remediation works," he said. With that, Cr Flanery said they wouldn't want to give up the 'ghost' just because there has been some budgetary cuts and they will want to look at efficiency gains. Councillor Blackwell said there have been some changes to the budget since their workshop on it several weeks ago, and he questioned that the footpath budgets had been zeroed. Cr Blackwell asked the Director of Infrastructure what that means in terms of week to week repair and maintenance of footpaths. The Director of Infrastructure said it will not affect repairs, despite no allocation for capital works on footpaths which means major replacements won't occur. "I'm not expecting there will are any major replacements required," he said. "Maintenance work will still be done. We'll still grind them when there's lips that are causing trip hazards, we can still do some replacements where it is required, but it is the larger capital work that we are not proposing to do. And that includes, obviously, new footpaths as well," the Director said. While no new capital works will be undertaken on footpaths, there will still be maintenance and repair works carried out on the footpaths. In a post to Facebook following the meeting Acting General Manager Sarah Karaitiana said they have a really strong focus on financial sustainability. "Our focus on the financial year ahead will be on reduced use of contractors and consultants and also the utilisation and management of our plant and fleet," she said. Hilltops Council voted in favour of adopting the: Hilltops Council Operational Plan 2026/27, Hilltops Council Revenue Policy 2026/27 and removing the allocation of $50,000 from Councilor discretionary fund.