THE Bathurst East Rotary Club will again be forced to go cap-in-hand to Bathurst Regional Council to secure a fee waiver to run a life-saving young driver awareness program.
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More than 5000 Year 11 students have passed through the Rotary Young Driver Awareness (RYDA) since its inception 10 years ago, hearing from local police, crash survivors and driving instructors just as they prepare to get behind the wheel themselves.
The award-winning program has been praised for its contribution to young driver safety and was last year named the winner of the Toyota Community Supporting Excellence Award at the national Excellence in Road Safety Education Awards.
A key to the program’s success is the opportunity to take advantage of the pit complex at Mount Panorama and Rotary relies on council waiving the usual hire fees to help keep costs down for participating students.
But a report to Wednesday’s meeting by corporate services and finance director Aaron Jones recommends council waive just two-thirds of the $6500 hire fees for the next week-long RYDA program to be held in May.
New RYDA co-ordinator Graeme Bright could not fathom the decision, saying 720 students were already booked in for the next event and he could not go back and charge them more now.
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“As we explained to council, in the 10 years we have been running this program we have found that when the cost goes up per student the numbers drop because some people struggle to pay more,” Mr Bright said.
“Initially we asked for a time that was less popular for bookings from Mount users so there would not be any conflict and they suggested May 7-11 because there was nothing else booked in.
“So the only cost to council that I can see is cleaning up after we’ve gone. We’re not taking other bookings away.”
Mr Bright said students from Bathurst, Lithgow and Blayney schools were booked in for the May program.
“Blayney, in particular, has had some terrible accidents recently and are very keen to get involved,” he said.
“We have got 100 coming from Lithgow as well and with the amalgamation of Scots and All Saints’, they are working to bring their combined Year 11s together for the program.”
Mr Bright said his club, which provides volunteer labour to run the week-long program, would have to look at fundraising alternatives unless councillors voted against the recommendation of staff on Wednesday night.
“It ($2167) is not a lot in council terms but it’s a lot for us to have to find,” he said.
“If push comes to shove I don’t see how we can go back to the participants now and charge more, and I don’t see how we could cut the number of days.
“We run six sessions a day and it’s a very full program.”
Mr Jones’ report to councillors offers no justification for not waiving the entire $6500 in hire fees.
“The Bathurst East Rotary Club advises … the additional burden of paying an amount of $2167 will cause a drop in student participation as the costs will need to be passed on to parents,” the report states.
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