Community Panel delivers recommendations

Tuesday, 9 February 2016

The Community Panel delivered its recommendations to Council on 8 February 2016.

Penrith Mayor Karen McKeown said the Council applauded the Community Panel's hard work and the enthusiasm with which they undertook the project to understand the complexity of running the growing regional City of Penrith.

"To delve into every facet of Council's operations, explore the City's opportunities and challenges and then to understand them and come up with recommendations that reflect the community's aspirations is a phenomenal effort," Councillor McKeown said.

"Members spent a combined total of more than 1500 hours on the Panel to come up with their report.

"They are carefully considered recommendations borne from the research, hard work and careful consideration of people from a variety of backgrounds, experiences and aspirations. Council is very excited to hear what the Community Panel recommends.

"Council has given the Panel full access to whatever they've needed to know about our services. We've simply provided them the information they have requested and left them to it.

"The recommendations tell us what the community see as the priorities for our City and how we are going to deliver the services and infrastructure Penrith needs."

The City and council are going through a period of rapid growth and change. Council has future-proofed itself for the City by doing a number of things including:

• undertaking a comprehensive Financial Capacity Review (FCR) to determine future funding and efficiently prioritise projects and services.
• undertaking an organisational capacity review to find ways to do more using existing resources;
• identifying productivity savings amounting to $5 million a year off the bottom line
• The (FCR) included a proposed four year special rate variation to boost service levels and help deliver projects such as Our River Masterplan, contribute to the building of multi deck CBD car parking and a state-of-the-art city park. Redevelopment of the South Creek sporting precinct also requires funding.

"The Community Panel has been an important part of our looking to the future and ensuring we are on the right track. By going through Council's plans, finances, services and capacity so diligently, their report helps set achievable and affordable community priorities for Council to deliver."

Download the Penrith Community Panel Report.

Information contained within this news release was correct as at Tuesday, 9 February 2016.