Stonnington residents will continue to pay some of the lowest rates in Victoria following Council’s decision to adopt the 2023-24 budget.
Councillors voted this week to approve the budget, which includes $64.89 million in new infrastructure projects and a surplus of $15.91 million.
Rates will rise by 3.5 per cent rate in 2023-24, which means an average increase of $59 per household.
Stonnington Mayor’s, Cr Jami Klisaris, said this year’s budget was particularly challenging due to the economic environment.
“Costs are rising beyond the 3.5 per cent rates cap and revenue streams have been slow to normalise after COVID,” she said.
“Inflation is impacting all businesses, including councils, so we’ve had to tighten our belt and make challenging trade-offs to accommodate increasing costs.”
Cr Klisaris said the Council was pleased to be delivering a number of major projects this year including the new sports centre at the Percy Treyvaud Memorial Park, the Toorak Park pavilion redevelopment and the Princes Gardens masterplan.
“We’re supporting our neighbourhoods with streetscape improvements in Toorak Village, work is continuing on the Chapel Street masterplan, and we’re progressing stage one of the investment into the renewal of the Prahran Market,” she said.
“Our priority has been to ensure long-term financial stability while preserving assets and services, accommodating growth and fulfilling our Council Plan 2021-25. Through prudent financial management, Stonnington Council is fortunate to be delivering a surplus. We’ve found efficiencies without compromising the quality of the services our community prioritised.”
Cr Klisaris thanked the community for getting involved and helping to frame this year’s budget.
“It is new for us to have community engagement during the creation of the budget, and that has been fantastic. In my time on Council, we’ve gone from having fewer than 10 people that would come to a meeting and give a verbal submission to now having hundreds of meaningful engagements.
“We’re delivering the priorities our residents identified: parks and open space, roads and drainage, streetscapes and amenity, community services and facilities, active transport and waste services.”
Budget highlights include:
- the completion of community sporting facilities at the Percy Treyvaud Memorial Park in Malvern East, including four new indoor netball and basketball courts ($5.55 million)
- expansion of our open space footprint by acquiring land ($7 million) and conversion of an existing road at Vista Grove into open space ($0.69 million including carryover)
- stage one facility upgrades at East Malvern Tennis Club ($0.40 million)
- asset improvement works to re‐activate the Prahran Town Hall ($1.11 million including carryover)
- continued investment in core infrastructure such as roads, footpaths, bridges and drainage works ($12.71 million including carryover)
- delivering on a new vision for Toorak Village with streetscape improvements ($6.50 million)
- the completion of redeveloped facilities at Toorak Park in Armadale ($10.72 million including carryover) and Princes Gardens in Prahran ($5.72 million including carryover), including skate park and basketball court improvements
- progressing stage one of investment into the renewal of our iconic Prahran Market building 2023-24 Budget ($5.39 million including carryover)
- uplifting our technology so it’s easier for people to interact with Council ($15.95 million including carryover) and strengthening our cyber security to keep our information safe ($2.80 million)
- continued implementation of our Climate Emergency Action Plan to reduce Council and community emissions (13 activities totalling $1.96 million)
- refurbishments works at the Prahran Aquatic Centre ($1.29 million including carryover)
- continued masterplan development for the Chapel Street Precinct to position the area for the future ($2.49 million including carryover)
- introducing a Place Led Economic Development Strategy to refresh our shopping precincts in direct response to local feedback ($0.40 million)
- continued improvements to the open space of Gardiners Creek (KooyongKoot), which is our major waterway and comprises more than 40 per cent of our open space in Stonnington ($1.28 million including carryover).
