This week commenced with a wonderful celebration for the 2025 recipients of our Bathurst Sporting Association Grants. Each year, Council facilitates a grant scheme to assist local sporting organisations as they undertake specific works or purchase equipment for the advancement of sport in the Bathurst Region. I’d again like to congratulate this year’s deserving grant recipients, including the Bathurst Bushrangers AFL Club, Bathurst Rifle Club, Bathurst Pan Dragons Inc, Bathurst Pony Club and Bathurst Cycling Club.
I’m looking forward to the additional community events taking place this weekend. The Bathurst Bike Show is being held along Russell St this Saturday with avid Bikers and their families travelling from across the state to attend. The Bathurst Bike Show has been held in the centre of town for over 15 years and is a fantastic, free day out for the whole family. I hope to meet many of you there. I’m also eager to meet Bathurst’s new residents this Sunday at our Welcome Lunch down at the Bathurst Visitor Information Centre. Around 500 new people choose to call Bathurst home each year, so I look forward to welcoming them this weekend.
As has been addressed in recent media, Council is currently in a difficult financial position. The day-to-day functioning of Council is not impacted; all staff continue to be reimbursed, and all bills are being appropriately paid on time, as usual. Whilst this situation is only temporary, strict cost savings and efficiencies are being looked at. This includes the delayed recruitment of non-critical roles and a reduction in events. As a result, at the 19 March Ordinary Meeting, Council resolved to cancel the Bathurst Winter Festival for 2025. This was by no means a decision Council took lightly. It is deeply unfortunate to not be able to proceed with this multi-award-winning event, yet its cancellation was the financially responsible approach to take for our long-term sustainability and will ensure that Council doesn’t incur unsustainable debt or divert critical funds from essential community projects. We are proactively engaging with community and business groups to identify cost-effective alternatives and to mitigate the short-term impacts on local businesses due to the festival’s cancellation.
Council has notified the Office of Local Government of our current financial position, and I travelled to Sydney with the General Manager, Deputy Mayor and Director of Corporate Services and Finance yesterday to meet with them. Our discussions were robust and positively constructive. With the Office of Local Government, we reviewed current Council projects and discussed what could be put on pause to mitigate further losses and essential considerations for our future budget. There was also mention of downsizing works currently being undertaken and if any of our assets can be repurposed or sold, all so to ensure that funds will remain available for our critical projects and the everyday functioning of Council remains unaffected. Council will report further on the additional strategies it will implement to return the unrestricted cash position back to a positive result.
Robert Taylor
Mayor of Bathurst