Council slashes fees on precinct building

Gosford Council has decided to slash its fees and charges for the Peninsula Recreation Precinct Building.

It will place the new fee schedule on public exhibition for 28 days and, if no objections are received, the fees and charges will be adopted.

The fees have been reduced with hourly weekday business rates for the hall reduced from $66 to $49 and half day rates reduced from $550 to $154.

A security deposit of $300 would be retained to ensure that the facility remained in an appropriate condition and cleaning was undertaken as required.

A cleaning fee of $200 would be charged in the event that the building was left in an unacceptable state by the hirer.

This would be determined by an inspecting Council officer following the event and deducted from the security deposit.

An increased rate of hire would be applied to trades or businesses wishing to hire the facility for corporate training and events and recreational and sporting based business activity.

A standard rate of hire would be charged to community members wishing to hire the building for private functions.

A reduced rate would be offered to community and sporting groups wishing to hire the building to undertake activities for a community purpose or benefit.

The building may be hired on an hourly basis throughout the day and-or evening with hire including bump in and bump out times.

According to Council's staff report of Tuesday, July 3, a number of changes had been proposed to the current fee structure to encourage increased utilisation of the hall, streamline standard charges such as the security deposit and cleaning fees and simplify timed rates of hire.

In addition, due to the establishment of the kiosk servicing the Peninsula Recreation Precinct, the fees associated with the hire of the kitchen area would be removed.

"The reduction in fees and charges for the hire of the facility is anticipated to have a positive impact on the ongoing funding for the maintenance of the Peninsula Recreation Precinct building and adjacent reserve," stated the Council report.

"As the current ratio of enquiries to actual hall hire sits at only 28 per cent it is expected that the reduction in fees will improve income generation through an increased number of hirers thereby providing additional resources to assist with the ongoing maintenance of the Peninsula Recreation Precinct in its entirety.

The report said that the Peninsula Recreation Precinct Building had been maintained to a high standard since its inception.

It stated that a number of minor maintenance works had been undertaken due to lack of usage, however, these did not affect the structural integrity of the building itself.

The Peninsula Recreation Precinct Building became available for hire in September last year.

Since this time Council had received 25 enquiries for the use of the main hall section within the building and had received only seven bookings, comprising four children's birthday parties and three Council community meetings.

The kitchen area was hired by two local volunteer organisations late last year to undertake fundraising activities with little success.

As a result, the kitchen area is now being utilised as a Council run kiosk to service the Peninsula Recreation Precinct.

Feedback from the majority of enquirers for the use of the main hall section suggested that the current rates being charged were unaffordable as hire of the building was often requested as a wet weather alternative or in addition to the use of the reserve for children's birthday parties.

Council's report said that it had also been considered that the hire of the building for recreation related business activities such as yoga, pilates and the like, was cost prohibitive due to the current fee and the numbers that the building could accommodate for such activities.

Gosford Council Agenda CIT.27, 3 Jul 2012

Photo: Naomi Bridges