Southern city ‘too expensive’

By Jim Mynard
LAST month Casey director of corporate services Steve Dalton advised Casey councillors that a separate municipality in the Cranbourne-Tooradin area could not fund existing infrastructure.
Mr Dalton said in a briefing to councillors that current expenditure in the area would incur crippling debt or cause the need for extremely high rates.
He was responding to a council request for a paper outlining options for the future splitting of the City of Casey.
The request asked that the report consider economic and social impacts and a proposal for the distribution of physical assets and contract implications.
Mr Dalton made his comment based on two new municipalities being divided at the logical boundary along Glasscocks and Grices roads.
“Councils of equivalent size to the northern section would be Monash and Bundoora, and in the south to Mildura and Nillumbik,” he said.
Compared to this, Mr Dalton said Casey was in the unique position where it could fund a second aquatic centre because of the flexibility to direct money to projects that required high expenditure.
“This is the benefit that economies of scale bring to larger councils,” he said.
Mr Dalton said that during the past three years considerable expenditure was directed to the Cranbourne area and it could be argued that the area was receiving a greater financial benefit than the rates it produced.
“The whole of community funding approach enables the council to provide facilities and infrastructure that can lead city growth and provide a more liveable environment for new residents,” he said.
“As the growth, maintenance, renewable cycle continues, other communities in Casey will receive the benefits of economies of scale and therefore the benefit of additional funding over and above rates they contribute.”
Mr Dalton said Casey’s significant size allowed it to advocate on behalf of the community more than any other council in Victoria.
“There are 13 state Members of Parliament and three members of the Federal Parliament in the City of Casey,” he said.
“This places councillors in an enviable position where they can lobby more strongly, widely and successfully on behalf of the community.”