A FORMER co-ordinator of the Rotary Youth Driver Awareness (RYDA) program in Bathurst says he believes some of the city's councillors should "hang their collective heads in shame" over the way the program has been treated.
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Greg Madden says council seems to have lost the ability to differentiate between fees and costs and has pointed out that the program was originally brought to the city by council's own road safety officer.
His comments come after Bathurst Regional Council decided that this year it would not reduce its hire fees for the Mount Panorama pit complex for the program.
The program was able to go ahead thanks to funds from the Rotary Club of Bathurst's corporate duck race and sponsorship from local businesses.
Mr Madden - a former long-time Rotarian who was the co-ordinator and day manager of RYDA in Bathurst for about the first three years after it started in the city in 2006 - said RYDA "was never designed to produce profits sufficient to pay council fees, and it does not do so elsewhere".
"Council has never made out a cheque for a donation in favour of RYDA, or to Rotary for RYDA, and Rotary has never asked for one," he said.
Mr Madden said the difference between costs and fees was that costs were "expenditures which are actually incurred in the provision of goods or a service", while fees were "what the provider decides to charge for the provision of the same".
"Council's costs involvement in RYDA consists of the cleaning of the toilet blocks used, the vacuuming and cleaning of the rooms which might be used, the electricity for lighting and the loan of some plastic water barriers about 10 metres long in total, and some water to fill them," Mr Madden said.
"Whether these things are provided for one day or five, those costs will not change, because the toilets are certainly not cleaned each day unless the Rotarians do it, and nothing else is touched by council staff or employees in that period.
"The total cost for all of this extravagance would be about $1000.
"And Bathurst Regional Council decides to charge RYDA, a registered not-for-profit organisation, a fee of anything between $9000 and $23,000 for the use of this small part of the Mount Panorama Complex."
Mr Madden said RYDA's sponsoring organisation, Road Safety Education Limited, is also a registered not-for-profit organisation, as is Rotary, and Rotarians donate their time and expertise to the RYDA program.
He said RYDA had always paid its way and covered its costs - "$10 per head collected from each student, with Rotary paying for those who can't; payments of around $150 per day to presenters; tea, coffee and sandwiches for the workers; and a few bob left to start next year".
"Council's fees are set by regulations prepared and adopted by council, not by any other body, and thus can easily be altered or amended," he said.
"All that is needed for this debacle to vanish is an alteration to the adopted regulations along the lines of the following: 'In the case of dealings with not-for-profit organisations or registered charities, council reserves the right to reduce the fees to the level of the costs incurred, or to remove them entirely, as may be deemed appropriate at the time.'"
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He said Bathurst Regional Council should consider the risk of bad publicity due to its stance on RYDA.
"With one of the five greatest motorsport facilities in the world sitting idle in Bathurst for about 250 days each year, how would it look to outsiders, and those who worship the Mountain, if the local council can't make a small part of it available for teaching road safety awareness to regional children for about five days each year - for nothing?"
Bathurst Regional Council general manager David Sherley told the Western Advocate last month that council had "assisted Rotary with holding the RYDA program over many years with the belief and understanding that the event would move to a self-funding operation".
"The discussions on this go back over 10 years," he said.
Council met with Rotary in late April and, according to the minutes of that meeting, they discussed that the total cost of the event would be $19,000, with $11,000 of that being the bill for the use of the pit complex.
Rotary sought a 50 per cent reduction from council of that $11,000, but was unsuccessful.
