Redland City Council today adopted a Capital Works Prioritisation Policy which will ensure capital budget allocations align with the needs of the community.

Redland City Mayor Karen Williams said the aim of the policy was to ensure better value for money while taking care of existing assetts the comunity owns first and foremost.

“While we already carefully scrutinise how our ratepayers’ dollars are spent, having an adopted policy further strengthens this process,” Cr Williams said.

“This policy will provide a system for assessing all capital works projects against set criteria to ensure we are not committing to an unsustainable financial future.

“It is about understanding the whole of life costs for any potential projects before we commit hard earned ratepayers dollars.

“This gives us added security that funds are allocated where they are most needed, providing a strong framework for building infrastructure across the city.

Infrastructure Portfolio Spokesperson Cr Murray Elliott said the new system would create a consistent way of allocating budget in future years.

“By having a standard priorisation criteria for projects, we will be able to give our residents the services they need most and better forecast our budget requirements,” he said.

“From our parks to our roads and footpaths, our capital works are a substantial allocation in Council’s annual budget and this policy will give our residents added peace of mind we are investing where we need to.”

Following the adoption of the policy, Council will create a set of criteria that can be applied across all capital works projects with the hope of these being in place in the near future.

The priorisation criteria supports a review of project delivery being undertaken by Council, which will improve the processes around project delivery.