COUNCILLOR Jess Jennings says Bathurst Regional Council will need to plan its next budget carefully to ensure it can maintain service levels to the community.
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Last month, council resolved to place its asset management plans on public exhibition, inviting comments from the community.
Those plans included funding details, which highlighted the average annual funding gap and current asset backlogs for its 11 asset management plans, which cover the aerodrome, bridges, buildings, drainage, footpaths, parks and recreation, rural roads, sewer, solid waste, urban roads, and water.
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Council has a total asset backlog of more than $43.5 million and the Engineering Services department has identified an average annual funding gap of $5,892,705.
The average annual funding gap is the shortfall of the current budget to fund predicted asset maintenance and renewal over a period.
In his report, director Darren Sturgiss said "further consideration of the funding gap will need to be made by council as part of the annual budgetary process".
"Provision and adoption of additional asset management plans will further highlight the growing funding gap between the community's expectations and the ability to fund these levels of service," Mr Sturgiss said in the report.
"Further consideration of the identified funding gap will need to be made by council as part of the annual budgetary process, with input from the community strategic plan."
Cr Jennings said that the selection of projects to be included had to be made carefully, given how hard COVID-19 has hit the economy.
He said water, which has a $1,673,270 backlog, had to be prioritised, along with rural roads ($6,815,929), urban roads ($17,056,860), and footpaths ($501,666).
"All of those are going to be the high priorities, I reckon, but it's all important, that's the reality of it," he said.
He again criticised council's decision to source a $2.25 million loan for the construction of the go-kart track, saying it is just another $251,000 a year council needs to find in its budget on top of the funding gaps.
"Taking $2.25 million out of ratepayers money for a go-kart track is only going to make those decisions tighter and harder," he said.
When asked if major projects should be set aside in order to maintain services and make a dent in the backlog, Cr Jennings said the only option was to find a balance.
"We need to make a balanced decision about things where you get the best return for your spend," he said.
"It needs to balance infrastructure fundamental needs with economic development returns, and so things like the collections facility is actually a massive economic growth generator and still ranks very high in terms of worthiness."
