Council profits from Docklands

The City of Melbourne has made an estimated $4.9 million profit from Docklands over the past financial year.                     

The Docklands Finance and Infrastructure Plan 2012-13 Financial Report presented to the Docklands Co-ordination Committee on September 17, revealed council made around $1.03 million more from Docklands than it had budgeted for.

However, the report also stated that indirect costs were not included, leading to an understatement in expenditure and an overstatement in surplus.

Council spent $265,633 less than expected on “engineering services” due to lower than anticipated street cleaning costs.

Council also raked in $410,674 in unbudgeted Marina YE berthing fees, but this was partially offset by $329, 262 unbudgeted expenditure on the marina.

Council also lost out on $117,196 of income expected from parking fines due to higher compliance from the public.

It also spent an additional $74,566 over and above what it had budgeted for New Year’s Eve events in Docklands.

The Docklands Five Year Finance and Infrastructure Plan was also presented at the committee meeting and revealed how much money council plans to pull from Docklands over the next five years.

The plan predicts that council’s 2013-2014 Docklands surplus will be $1,302,191.

Between the start of the 2014-2015 financial year and the end of the 2017-2018 financial year, council estimates it will collect almost $60 million from Docklands.

However, this figure doesn’t take into account capital investments, which are subject to the councils’ annual budgets.

At a Future Melbourne Committee meeting in March, councillors voted to request legislative changes to dissolve the Docklands Co-ordination Committee (DCC).

At the time, council said it wanted to disband the committee because the Docklands Community Forum was a better model.

A spokesperson for Minister for Local Government Jeanette Powell said the minister had received a request to dissolve the DCC.

The spokesperson said the matter was being considered and, if adopted, would require an amendment to the City of Melbourne Act 2001.