Unspent COVID money to be re-assigned

MORE than $500,000 of unspent COVID-19 relief and recovery funds will be redirected to support seven projects and events, including a plan to activate the Mildura CBD.

Mildura Council was allocated $1.5 million in the 2020-21 Budget for those experiencing hardship or to support economic and social recovery outcomes, however about $533,000 remained unallocated approaching the end of the 2020-21.

Councillors had been recommended to return the remaining funds to council’s general revenue in order to improve the anticipated budget deficit at the end of the 2020-21 financial year, but they decided to include the funds as part of $537,000 towards a variety of projects as part of its 2021-22 Budget.

The largest single allocation will be a $150,000 spend towards the council’s CBD Plan Activation which aims to make the precinct “all inclusive”.

Cr Mark Eckel told this week’s special meeting to adopt the 2021-22 Budget that the $150,000 would be “very, very well spent”.

“The CBD plan recognises that the activation plan is about the whole of the CBD area taking into consideration the precincts – it’s all about the whole, it’s not about any one component of the CBD to get the CBD activated,” Cr Eckel said.

“It dictates that the centre of Mildura by the end of the plan will be at the corner of Seventh Street and Langtree Avenue … taking into consideration the fabulous development that’s happened on the riverfront and the connection,” he said.

“That is great credit to previous councils in their vision of how important it is to connect with the river (and) it is recognised by the majority of the community.

“The important issue is, too, that we need the development outside of the Langtree strip … and make sure that we’re activating all those spaces to make it all-inclusive.”

Cr Eckel said one of the important issues around the CBD was for it to have a point of difference from the Fifteenth Street shopping precinct.

“We’re about events – we’re about our multicultural community and we’ve seen how the activation of those events around our multiculturalism has really worked,” he said.

“The $150,000 is to activate those spaces so they’re fresh and we don’t leave it behind.

“The big issue with visitation is that tourists, when they come to town, do constantly bring up how Mildura has grown, whether it’s been in the residential area or whether it’s been in the centre of Mildura.

“When they come here they say, ‘it’s looking fresh, it’s terrific, what you are doing?’.”

Councillors also agreed to put $130,000 towards a Tourism and Directional Signage Strategy, $120,000 for COVID response and rebuild, the implementation of the “Baby Makes 3 Program” at an estimated cost of $75,000, $30,000 for Mildura Arts Centre’s online programs, $22,000 towards the Riverfront Place Making project and $10,000 of COVID funding to the Red Cliffs Centenary celebrations.

Crs Liam Wood and Stefano de Pieri each declared a conflict of interest and did not vote on the CBD activation plan while Cr Glenn Milne excused himself from the vote to approve Red Cliffs Centenary funding due to him being chair of the organising committee.