We recently received the Bundaberg City Council Budget News letter in our mailbox, outlining the council's $93 million 2007-2008 budget - the council's largest budget ever.

While the vast majority of the money is going to expansion and growth projects ($15.9 million to airport works, $12.4 million to major tourism facilities, $8.5 million to road construction and maintenance, etc) there were a couple small items of particular interest to SustainaBundy:

"An allocation of $550,000 has also been made for the further implementation of the Multimodal Pathway System across the city of which $200,000 has been provided by the State Government"

Yeah, I wasn't sure what that meant either- till I saw this further down the page:

"Expansion of the city's cycleway and footpath network at a cost of $550,000"

Also:

"Our quality lifestyle will be futher enhanced with $3.7 million set aside for cultural activities (Arts Centre, Library and Moncrieff Theatre) and another $3.7 million for parks and gardens. Significant funds for the staging of major events and for community groups are also included."

Further details shows these cultural and park upgrades to include mundane things like air conditioning, parking, lighting, and kids play areas, but there are a few promising (if perhaps odd) tidbits such as "planning for a wetland/water polishing area in the Botanic Gardens" (water polishing??) as well as some valuable upgrades in the library.

Another item that caught my eye was "continuation of preliminary works on the Agro Trend Site to accommodate the future relocation of the Bundaberg Showgrounds". The current showgrounds site is several acres... I wonder what they have planned for it once they move the showgrounds to the Agro Trend site? Perhaps a sustainable housing development could be proposed...

I'm going to get in touch with council this week to learn more about all these items- stay tuned for more, and please chip in with your thoughts.