Bathurst council: $25,000 loan for EarlyStart outdoor learning area

Council had received a request for financial assistance from the director of West Bathurst Preschool for its EarlyStart Kelso Preschool and Family Centre, which is being constructed within the Charles Sturt University precinct.

The request was for $33,000, to be put towards the completion of a sandpit and shade sails in the outdoor learning area.

Corporate services and finance director Aaron Jones advised councillors to knock back the funding.

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"Should council resolve to support this request, it would create an unsustainable precedent which will more than likely lead to similar requests from other preschool facilities as they embark on new constructions or renovations," he said.

However, councillors came up with an alternative, which was to provide the preschool a loan of $25,000 to be repaid over five years, in accordance with council's Section 356 donations policy.

Deputy mayor Ian North said he understood the figure required for the project was closer to $25,000.

Councillor Monica Morse noted that EarlyStart is not a typical preschool as it provides opportunities to very underprivileged children, and she wanted to see council provide whatever support it could.

Cr North said the loan would do just that.

"What this group does is wonderful. We are offering a solution that, in my many years here, I've never made this offer," he said.

"... They've come to us, I was looking around for a solution and that was the best one I could come up with and the director said 'Yes, we can do that and make it available to them', and I personally think it's a great solution."

Councillors voted unanimously to support the motion to provide the loan.

Council has provided loans to other community groups in Bathurst before, including the Carillon Theatrical Society and numerous sporting organisations.