Patrick Goldsmith, Yorke Peninsula Country Times
Yorke Peninsula Council will spend the $405,114 in extra rates revenue garnered from primary producers, on road-related efficiency improvement.
YPC rates increased by eight per cent this year, with an extra three per cent hit taken by primary producers.
The additional revenue has been specifically allocated to improving council’s road network.
Elected members endorsed the purchase of two freeroll grader roller attachments, one rear blade grader attachment for road shoulder maintenance and to increase the equivalent full-time jobs by two, to facilitate better patrol grader utilisation, last Wednesday, October 11.
Council CEO Andrew Cameron said hiring two additional grader operators and upgrading the relevant equipment would provide a significant boost to council’s rural road maintenance program.
“This will benefit all road users,” he said. “Council has an extensive network of dirt roads which requires frequent maintenance, and while our current grader operators do a fantastic job there are obviously times when they are unavailable due to leave, training, et cetera.
“Now we will have the staffing capacity to keep our graders running more frequently resulting in better roads for our community and visitors.
“Our primary producers pay far lower rates than their neighbours in other nearby local government areas, which is why we have slowly increased rates primary production in the past few years — but from day one we promised extra rates collected from farmers would be put back into our rural roads, and we are proud to have lived up to that commitment.”
YPC primary production ratepayers make up 67.2 per cent ($7.01 billion) of council’s total rateable land valuation, but only contribute 39.4 per cent of the rates income.
Mayor Darren Braund said council valued continuously improving its road network.
“We have a forward-thinking director assets and infrastructure (Andre Kompler) who identified key machinery needed to go forward in this area, so we can continue to improve,” he said.
“The roads working party played a part in informing the need too, but Andre has certainly been the lead on that.”
With a rise in rates usually a contentious issue amongst payers, Mr Braund said the initial decision to ringfence the money allowed clarity over the push for improvement which benefitted primary producers.
“I think this showed the community a specific purpose and need,” he said.
“Primary producers could definitely see it was going to be spent on something which would be beneficial to their agribusinesses, whatever they may be.”
Residents can see which roads have been graded across YPC’s vast network by visiting
www.ypc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/ImpactSummary/index.html?appid=375dedc5e286491cbb0c113 5c9f283ec.
This article appeared in the Yorke Peninsula Country Times, 17 October 2023.
