Much is happening in and around Winchelsea – not least the Winchelsea Place Plan which has held the first 2 sessions gathering ideas and principles that will feed into coming sessions to form the actual Place Plan. Your input is now being sought on the emerging vision and principles for Winchelsea; I strongly encourage you to take 5 minutes and add your thoughts at yoursay.surfcoast.vic.gov.au/WPP. Your next opportunity for feedback will be on the draft Place Plan, but for now please indicate your level of support for each item. Remember, this isn’t about setting the future Winchelsea into stone, it’s about (strong) guidelines for development in line with what the community want.
And while on the subject of surveys (yes, local government loves a quick survey), the Domestic Animal Management Policy is up for review and here too your input is requested. This particularly applies to dogs & cats and any rules around their ownership. The essential drive is that responsible ownership is good for everyone, but of course penalties need to be available for those that don’t or won’t do the right thing. There’s been a pretty low response from Winchelsea – as a growing town, pet ownership is on the rise, and the survey is looking for feedback from both owners and non-owners to see if any changes to the policy are needed. See yoursay.surfcoast.vic.gov.au/CatsAndDogs
Alas I was interstate for the Arts Trail held around the Shire the weekend before last, but other Councillors and staff have said how amazing it was. It’s a fair bit of work to prepare each location, congratulations to all the participants plus a Thankyou to all the visitors. Creative arts are an important aspect of what makes Surf Coast Shire special. I hear Shrek Gallery in particular was a notable venue, albeit for the show-stealing 1-week-old Shetland calf! The Shire is making an increasing number of venues available for arts exhibitions eg. the Shire Hall, Deans Marsh Hall, Deans Marsh Footy Shed and more.
This year’s Rates notices have now been sent out, except for farmers whose rates are being finalised in line with the State government’s latest drought assistance. There does seem to be a lot of misunderstanding about how rates are calculated especially around the widespread awareness that the Shire budget increased by 3% but individual rate increases are all over the place. It’s a simple enough formula though;
• the total Shire budget is set first (a 3% increase this year)
• then the State government’s Value General advises the estimated value of every property in the Shire (yup, each one)
• the budget is divided by the total value of ALL property values to give a per-dollar-value number (the ‘rate in the dollar’)
• individual property values as set by the Valuer General (which may fall as well as rise) are multiplied by the rate in the dollar to give the Rates
• additional charges (ie. waste including the State government’s EPA fee, and the State’s new fire levy) are then added
Disagree with your own property valuation? Then have it reviewed by the Valuer General – see ratingvaluationobjections.vic.gov.au but be sure to do it within 60 days of getting your rates. They’re friendly and approachable and happy to hear from you but prepare your reasons.
One note about State government charges on the Rates notice. It is NOT an option to pay the rates and not pay the fire levy, because legislation requires any payment be allocated proportionally between the subtotals (ie. rates, waste, fire levy). In other words, whatever you pay will still contribute to waste and fire levy. I encourage you to make your feelings about the fire levy known direct to the State government.
Don’t forget, please fill in those 2 surveys referred to.