Council may spend $133,000 on rare bushland project
Central Coast Council will consider releasing a total of $133,000 for the council to spend on the rare and endangered Umina Coastal Sandplain Woodland.
The recommendation, to be considered at tomorrow's council meeting, is to release $82,000 in February for the 2022-23 financial year and to release $51,000 in July for the 2023/24 financial year.
The recommendations come from the December 12 meeting of the Council's Protection of the Environment Trust Management Committee, presented for consideration in a report prepared by the Governance section of council.
The report said that the release of funds held in the trust aligned with the purpose of the trust.
"The Protection of the Environment Trust is a Trust of which Council is the Trustee."
The report said: "Staff support these recommendations as they release funds for the delivery of priority actions of the NSW Government's Restoration and Rehabilitation Management Plan for the Umina Coastal Sandplain Woodland Endangered Ecological Community.
"There are no financial implications associated with the recommendations in this report as the funds associated with undertaking the audit are available in the Trust Fund and will be at no expense to Council.
"The funds being allocated to the Umina Coastal Sandplain Woodland project are part of the funds held by the Trust for those projects."
The report stated that the recommendations fell within the "good governance and great partnerships" council goal to "engage and communicate openly and honestly with the community to build a relationship based on trust, transparency, respect and use community participation and feedback to inform decision making".
Council staff told the December Trust meeting that "a subsequent recommendation needs to be made to Council as Trustee to approve release of the funds ... for management actions as per the confirmed budget ... presented at the meeting held on 15 June 2022".
The Trust minutes record: "The committee agrees to the recommendation and that the third year of the Umina Coastal Sandplain Woodland be a future report back to the committee."
However, neither the December nor June minutes contain a list of management actions or budget details.
SOURCE:
Central Coast Council agenda