Blayney council failed the ‘Fit for the Future’ assessment put in place by IPART because of its small population, a criteria that Councillor David Somervaille said was somewhat arbitrary.

“For whatever reason IPART decided that the population had to be ten thousand and I’ve always been critical of that,” he said. 

“We ticked every financial box and we’re in great financial shape, but there’s nothing we can do about our population.”

Being deemed fit has significant advantages for the financial future of the council, allowing them access to low interest loans from TCorp, the government lending arm of the NSW Treasury.

As it stands council would need to access commercial loans at a much higher interest rate to complete important infrastructure projects.

Mayor Scott Ferguson said that the TCorp treasury loans are half that charged by commercial lenders and would save ratepayers tens of thousands of dollars every month.

“We have six bridges to build in the shire and we’re looking at borrowing about $1.3 million to complete all those bridges,” he said. 

“The difference over the life of the loan between a commercial rate and what we can get from TCorp, over 20 years, is anything up to $500,000.” 

With the community partnership funding that was allocated as part of the merger now not forthcoming, money for upgrading existing infrastructure will now need to be found.

“Projects such as the upgrade of CentrePoint, sporting fields and the cultural centre will now need to be funded by these loans and grant applications,” Cr Ferguson said.

Cr Ferguson said that at the rural council meeting in Sydney this Friday, that he and the General Manager Rebecca Ryan would be putting the case to the Minister Gabrielle Upton to have Blayney deemed fit, with a sense of urgency.

“We have the engineering for the bridges done, and within three to six months we’ll be wanting to access the funds to get that project started,” he said.