Bay & Basin Buses - Quik Trip 3 - St George Basin to Basin View

If you have watched the first two videos of The Bay & Basin Buses, here is the third one. This trip is from St Georges Basin to Basin View using the *102 Scenic Bus from Nowra Coaches, which is here for you to see. 

which I also These trips are one-way journeys, so you must imagine the return journeys as the reverse of that trip you are watching. 

Remember these trips encourage you as a community to catch local buses to get to important local areas, for yourself.

General feedback on the last video has questioned when the Bus Service video will be shown going through Tomerong, here. My answer is 'shortly'. This has raised some issues for Tomerong commuters catching buses. Those issues have been referred to Shoal Bus and that person has been advised to provide feedback to them as well. Any resolution here, I will let you know here.

All bus drivers have provided their approval to film these trips, to help people in our community understand where our buses can take you. 

Click here for the Quick Trip 3 video - St Georges Basin to Basin View  

Click here for Quick Trip 2 video - HomeCo Vincentia to Huskisson

*102 Scenic Bus from Nowra Coaches is my description of this bus service, signifying it is a slower bus service from Basin View to the Nowra/Bomaderry, compared to the 102X (Express from St Georges basin to Woollamia and the same as the 102 Nowra Coaches from Wollamia to Nowra/Bomaderry).

If you missed the first two videos click on the link for Quick 2 and you will be able to check them.

Click here for Nowra Coaches Timetables

Michael Maguire Officially Announced As Blues Origin Coach - NRL.com

The NSW Rugby League Board has appointed Michael Maguire as the new head coach of the NSW Blues.

Maguire, 49, fresh from steering the New Zealand national team to a historic 30-0 Pacific Cup Final win over the Kangaroos this month, will become the 16th coach of the Blues following the end of Brad Fittler’s six-year tenure. Maguire has coached 303 First Grade games with Wigan (2010-2011), South Sydney (2012-17) and Wests Tigers (2019-22), winning the 2010 Super League title, 2011 Challenge Cup, and 2014 NRL premiership with the Rabbitohs.

NSWRL Chief Executive David Trodden made the announcement on Thursday at the NSWRL Centre of Excellence, also revealing that Maguire’s high-performance team will include John Cartwright (Broncos), Matt King (Roosters), and Brett White (Titans).

Highly respected Melbourne Storm football manager Frank Ponissi will be the Blues' team performance manager, with other appointments including Andrew Gray (physical performance manager) and Sean Edwards (strength and conditioning), who also have extensive NRL club experience.

“On behalf of the NSWRL Chairman Paul Conlon and the Board, it gives me great pleasure to announce Michael Maguire has agreed to a multi-year appointment as the head coach of the Westpac NSW Blues, starting from 2024," Trodden said. 

“In recent years we have been blessed with the stability of long-term coaching tenures with Brad Fittler, Laurie Daley and Ricky Stuart and we are looking forward to this engagement following the same pattern.

We all have expectations of immediate success in 2024 together with the opportunity to build a structure that will provide for sustained long-term success. David Trodden

Editor's Notes: I feel that a change should be a good change in the right direction. Michael is a good coach, especially when he guided South Sydney to a grand final win in 2014. I hope the players look up to him and keep the NSW Cockroach's pride.

Bay & Basin Buses - Quick Trip 2 - Vincentia HomeCo. To Huskisson

If you have watched the first video of The Bay & Basin Buses, here is the second one which I also hope you find intriguing and interesting. These trips are one-way journeys, so you must imagine the return journeys as the reverse of that trip you are watching. This trip is from Vincentia HomeCo. to Huskisson.

Remember these trips encourage you as a community to catch local buses to get to important local areas, for yourself.

 All bus drivers have provided their approval to film these trips, to help people in our community understand where our buses can take you. 

Click here for Bay & Basin Buses - Quick Trip 2

 Click here for the previous Quick Trip 1

Click her for Nowra Coaches Timetables

Click here for the Quick Trip 2 video

Core Rate Pegs for 2024-25 Financial Year Range 4.5 - 5.5%

 

It appears that the new NSW IPART rate peg measurements are forcing investors out of the market. When you look at this increase. they mention that Councils can add the increases from years that weren't increased. So, what does that mean? What happens if  Councils put down on their projects. It seems Councils allocate funds to projects and the money disappears or dwindles to Executive fees and staff fees.

From Mr Google:

When factoring in bonuses and additional compensation, a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at NSW Government can expect to make an average total pay of $200,000.

Some projects are vital and important to be commenced and completed. Why should ratepayers bear the brunt of Council rate- pegging even when it is factored down to natural disasters and COVID-19 rising costs. Our Prime Minister wanted inflation to increase, so wages increased when he was first elected. Now, does he still want inflation to rise so that rates and cost of living goes up?

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We Have Decided Not To Set A Waste Peg 2023-2024 - NSW IPART

 

By NSW IPART not setting a rate peg for 2023-2034, this could provide an explosive precedent that Local GOvernments could exercise the increase substantially to ratepayer fees. It's funny as my understanding is NSW IPART bases increases on population increase and Inflation as well as others.

What happens when inflation goes down? Do the Council rates go down? Instead, we might see rates just remain as they are - I do remember the Shoalhaven City Council offering the Covid-19 rate rebate in 2020. I do not think they are in the process of doing that today.

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A Community Quick Guide to Local Buses in The Sanctuary Point & St Georges Basin Villages -

I have been working on a local bus project with Bruce Goldsmith from the Sanctuary Point & St Georges Basin Community Champions Inc.

The results are a quick, easy and simple guide of timetables to the bus commuters of Sanctuary Point & St Georges Basin, 7 days per week. The beauty of this is it is looking at it from a microscopic view of catching buses between 2 villages. This could be the format used with timetables, in the future, to help all bus commuters understand how to catch their buses.

At the end of the day, it should make new bus commuters understand how easy it is to catch the buses, within these villages and beyond you may refer to the Nowra Coaches Tomles tables for 102/102X buses.

Click here for the Quick Guide

 Editors Notes:

Well, if the shortfall is $25M to $35M, rather then cut staff, cut off some projects that haven't been started yet and are not essential and only work on them when the funds are available. cut

Community Invited To Have A Say About Financial Sustainability - Shoalhaven City Council

 

At its meeting last night, Council endorsed a number of recommended actions to secure the financial sustainability of the organisation as outlined in a Draft Resourcing Strategy and Long-Term Financial Plan 2024– 2034. 

The recommendations stem from an independent expert review of Council’s finances to determine the overall income and expenditure needed to maintain and provide services across the city in the immediate and long term. 

Currently, the report estimates that there is a $25 million to $35 million annual shortfall in the budget that needs to be addressed and the impact of inflation will only continue to increase this deficit if it is not corrected. Also, the net cost of a series of natural disasters that have hit the Shoalhaven in recent years, combined with the much-needed financial relief and support provided to the community during and after the COVID Pandemic, has reduced Council’s unrestricted or available cash position by $14.6 million. Council’s reduced cash position leaves the city vulnerable should the need arise unexpectedly for council to response to another disaster.

The report identified that Council has a lower average rate for residential and business rating categories comparable to neighbouring councils and many other councils in the state. 

The findings of the Financial Sustainability Review are that along with strategies such as potential asset sales and the continued identification of efficiency and productivity improvements, Council need to consider making an application to the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) for a Special Rate Variation (SRV) under s508A of the Local Government Act to reinstate its unrestricted cash reserves, fix the structural operating deficit position and to generate sufficient cash from operations to continue to provide the much needed service for a growing city. 

The two proposed SRV options for the community to consider are: 

• 32% increase in 2024-25 (inclusive of rate peg) 
•  18% increase in 2024-25, 13% increase in 2025-26 and 8% increase in 2026-27 (inclusive of rate peg). 

The financial impact of these on the average residential rates would be an increase in 2024-25 of $467 for Option 1 and $263 for Option 2.   

Under Option 1, the increase in residential rates from 2025-26 would be limited to the IPART approved rate peg while under Option 2, the average residential rate would increase by $224 in 2025-26 and $156 in 2026-27 and return to the approved IPART rate peg from 2027-28. 

Council has also committed to reviewing its land and facilities assets for potential sale. 

It has identified a target of $3 million in operational efficiency savings to be found over the next four years, along with implementing asset management improvements to reduce costs of maintenance in the long term. 

The updated draft Resourcing Strategy 2022-26, including the Long-Term Financial Plan, Workforce Management Planning Strategy, Asset Management Strategy and Information Communication Technology Strategy will be available for review from Thursday 23 November.  

The community are invited to complete a survey about these documents and the proposed SRV options before 10 January 2024. 

Council will consider the feedback from the consultation and determine whether to proceed with an application to IPART for a SRV at its meeting on 29 January 2024. 

Information will be available on the Get Involved website from Thursday 23 November: Get Involved Shoalhaven (nsw.gov.au).  

 

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