It’s not the budget we voted for

Letters to the editor

It’s not the budget we voted for

May 13 2025

Updated 22 hours ago

1 min read

Sentinel-Times

IN YOUR Sentinel-Times comment April 23, 2025, regarding the 2025-26 draft budget you quote the Council’s projected underlying results as losses. This is totally misleading as it fails to show the Council’s comprehensive result which is positive.

The Budgets are extremely conservative. For example, from the 2023-24 budget Council was forecasting net assets for 2025-26 of $866 million.

And in this year’s budget the Council forecasts net assets for 2025-26 of $1.301 billion. This is an uplift of over 50 per cent and represents extremely bad budgeting!

To quote the Council, “The unmade roads and inadequate drainage creates issues for the communities such as dust, mud, potholes, flooding, disconnected pedestrian networks and dynamic traffic safety.”

The unmade footpaths lead to people having to walk on the road at a great risk to themselves. We have had pedestrians in the Bass Coast lose their life due to the lack of made footpaths.

We need to have the Sentinel-Times drive the need for urgent infrastructure spending.

We must address the infrastructure issues in the Bass Coast Shire Council Budgets. The Budgets need to be redone to reflect an increase in infrastructure spending.

Frank W Schooneveldt, Wonthaggi

Letters to the Editor

Success in keeping Dutton out

THIS election, The Greens set out to “keep Dutton out and get Labor to act”. Mission accomplished. While there’s been plenty of commentary on Adam Bandt losing the seat of Melbourne, we’ve seen decidedly less media focus on Greens’ results...

Letters to the Editor

You can’t trust a person with a blower

THE invention of blowers may have been very good if only used with respect for other properties. They are great for grass clippings on paths, they stay away from spoutings, but they are a curse for leaves like oaks, that block spouting gutters...

Letters to the Editor

Denied happiness

THERE is a large number of members of this community have been denied the right to be happy. It’s amazing how malicious gossip against another person is totally and utterly believed, and this is done because they can’t accept the word no. These...

Letters to the Editor

A job well done

I WOULD like to congratulate the Shire’s depot staff for their recent timely intervention. Cheryl, Danny and the team responded promptly to a drainage problem at the front of a number of properties in Campbell Street, Wonthaggi. They were helpful...