General News
30 June, 2025
Council in favour with community
The Horsham Rural City Council’s overall performance, customer service, and overall direction have improved, with the most recent community survey showing an overall performance index score of 48, representing a five-point increase on the 2024 result.
From a score of 37 in 2024 to 61 in 2025, the perceptions of Horsham Rural City Council’s overall council direction have risen in the past 12 months.
This is the highest rating ever recorded for this measure and a strong result for Council, especially considering the lowest rating for overall direction was recorded only two years ago (34 in 2023).
Council is now rated significantly higher than both the State-wide and Regional Centres group averages (index scores of 46 and 48, respectively).
Mayor Ian Ross said he was pleased to see the improvement, and it meant the council was moving in the right direction, but acknowledged there was still work to be done.
"I am pleased for the councillors," he said.
"For new councillors, they have banded together and formed a valuable team; this is encouraging for them to see that their interest in the community and its views has had the desired effect.
"This is a council that is for the people, and we will continue to be that way."
The removal of paid parking in the CBD earned some favour for the newly elected council, who will now decide if that remains, since the community consultation period has been completed and it is decision time.
Among the decisions facing the newly elected council was the proposed City Oval project, with a majority vote against the nine-million-dollar project.
Council moved that its proposed contribution of 4.8 million dollars could be spread more evenly across the municipality in a time of financial hardship in the community, in a 5:2 vote.
The vote against accepting the funding has been met with some disappointment by previous members of HRCC and the Community Reference Group, as HRCC was one of only six regional municipalities to be offered the funding in this round.
However, Cr Ross said the feedback had been minimal, and believed it was a sign that the community had accepted the council's 5:2 decision.
The new Emergency Services Volunteer Fund presented another challenge for the new council, but unlike the City Oval Project, the council voted unanimously to oppose the levy in its current form, citing the hardship it presented to communities and the inequality of its rating system, which largely targeted the rural community.
At the June meeting, councillors expressed the need for the council to continue in the positive direction indicated in the survey, but acknowledged the positive feedback from the community survey was encouraging for the first-term council.