Where some of your Blayney Shire Council rates go

The answer isn't a box of Arnott's Assorted Creams in the tea room, partly it's the maintenance of the many services that we often take for granted, and go past every day.

As council prepares to inform the community of the possibility of a special rate variation being put in place, they have released the 2023/24 - 2026-27 delivery plan as well as the 2023/24 operational plan which sets out how much it costs to maintain those community assets around the shire.

Along with the road network, parks and gardens is certainly one of the most noticeable services that council provides, and as fuel costs increase as does demand for picture perfect parks, some of those services will inevitably need to be cut.

When council upgrades an oval's irrigation system to help keep the ground's lush and playable, they also increase the maintenance cost of mowing them.

With limited gardening staff and hours in the day council must then decide what gets mowed, and what doesn't.

Often clubs using the grounds pay council a fee, however the vast majority of the costs involved in maintaining a ground comes from our rates.

Here are the annual costs, and the percentage of council subsidy, of each of the sporting grounds in Blayney shire.

That's a total of $569,000 spent every year just on maintaining those seven sporting facilities.

Included in those costs are the cleaning of toilets, barbecues and the removal of rubbish either on a daily or weekly basis.

Then comes the maintenance regime for non-sporting parks such as Heritage and Carrington Parks as well as lawns and verges around Blayney and the villages.

Blayney is by far the biggest recipient of council's service with places such as Church Hill, Goose Park, Frog Hollow and the Billy Soo reserve all being maintained by council's gardening crew.

They also maintain the entrances along Bathurst, Cowra and Orange road as well as in the industrial area.