Call for Public Enquiry into Lane Cove Council

This action is a submission for the review of draft LCC operational plan for 2025/26. It also is a submission to the council's Audit, Risk and Improvement Committee (ARIC).

The Long Term Finanacial Plan component is a financial modelling tool which enables analysis of all aspect of the councils performance. Since the June 2020 plan, council has been progressively removing key performance indicators, and using the RBA aspirational CPI target band instead of the forecast, which makes the plan inaccurate and incomplete.

It asks for the use of accurate RBA CPI forecasts and to re-introduce the key Asset and Capital performance ratios removed in 2022, back in its Long Term Financial Plan, to provide a holistic picture of as it has now become clear that these are areas of significant issue.

It also ask for some information that used to be included in previous Asset Management Plans.

This action is a submission for the review of draft LCC operational plan for 2025/26. It also is a submission to the council's Audit, Risk and Improvement Committee (ARIC).

The Long Term Finanacial Plan component is a financial modelling tool which enables analysis of all aspect of the councils performance. Since the June 2020 plan, council has been progressively removing key performance indicators, and using the RBA aspirational CPI target band instead of the forecast, which makes the plan inaccurate and incomplete.

It asks for the use of accurate RBA CPI forecasts and to re-introduce the key Asset and Capital performance ratios removed in 2022, back in its Long Term Financial Plan, to provide a holistic picture of as it has now become clear that these are areas of significant issue.

It also ask for some information that used to be included in previous Asset Management Plans.

Review of draft Lane Cove Council Operational Plan

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Feedback on draft Budget, Delivery Program & Operational plan below. Also, please send a copy to the council's Audit, Risk and Improvement Committee (ARIC), as they do not have a direct email. I seek transparency and completeness.

Long Term Financial Plan
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The LTFP is a financial modelling tool to analyse and assess future investment and robustness of all aspects of the council financial status. The removal of the performance measures for capital expenses, infrastructure backlog and asset maintenance is concealing major areas where the public has performance expectations of the council, such as the health of assets; and therefore makes the LTFP incomplete and misleading, without them.

I ask for the following changes.

1.	Inflation subheading page 14.
The RBA CPI forecast rate used is incorrect. The document states “The RBA range for inflation for 2025/26 is forecast to be between 2% - 3%”.

The correct RBA forecast for 2025/26 is between 2.4-3.7% and 2026/27 is between 2.7-3.2% (ref: https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/smp/2025/feb/). (Note: RBA May outlook has been issued since the release of this draft).

I ask that either the plan is changed to use the correct values, or a separate conservative scenario (which LTFP's are supposed to have) is added where the CPI values are,
1st year – 3.7%
2nd year – 3.2%
Then on – 3.0% (which is at the top range of the RBA target band of 2-3%).
(note: the model supports varying CPIs as done in LTFP for 2020)

2.	Revert to showing actuals of previous years along with forecasts over 10 years.
Revert to showing at least 1, preferably 2 previous years actual values as LTFPs prior to August 2022 had, for all 10 year forecast starting from page 21 – 26, so the planned forecast values can be easily associated with actual performance from previous years. You will then have actuals, budget, and then 10 forecasts. (refer to LCC LTFP of June 2021 for details) 
 
3.	Statement of performance measures page 26
a.	Re-introduce the performance measures that were in the LTFP of 2020, so that a true and complete view of planned asset maintenance, Infrastructure backlog and capital expense performance can be assessed. Preferably all, but at least the first 4 which are critical at this point (the 1st 3 are reported in Annual statements).
i.	Infrastructure backlog ratio
ii.	Asset Maintenance Ratio
iii.	Capital Expenditure ratio
iv.	Building and renewal ratio over 3 years, as this is accumulative.
v.	Own source Operating Revenue over 3 years.
vi.	Operations performance ratio over 3 years

4.	The related Asset Management plan shows that the health of council roads and parks are at an alarming low of around 50% presenting a significant safety risk to public and cost of vehicle wear and tear. It presents scenarios to improve the health. These scenarios should be included in the LTFP as well (at least the most likely 2 scenarios).

Asset Management Plan
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1.	This plan is significantly better than previous plans.
2.	The plan shows that the health of roads and parks are at an alarming 50%! Besides this being a fundamental responsibility of the council, it is a significant safety hazard to the community, and the risk must be assessed. Furthermore, it impact the community due to increased wear and tear of vehicles. 
3.	The plan lacks historical information (actuals) so there is no reference point for comparing and assessing. Appendix 1 could include actuals for 2 or 3 previous years. 
4.	Previous AMPs had various graphs showing actual movements of critical performance measures (ref:  AMP page 12 of June 2024)
5.	The plan no longer shows the asset renewal deficit. The plan from 2024 shows that over the 10 year period it would accumulate to $40M. The plan should include both the current year deficit, and the accumulative deficit across the 10 years in Appendix 1.

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