THE ENVIRONMENT LEVY IS TO PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT.. ISN'T IT?

7TH JUNE 2013

Budget deliberations are wrapping up so please contact your local councillors to let them know your views.

Here are the contact details for the Councillors, CEO John Knaggs and Finance Director Greg Laverty

24TH MAY 2013

That the $250 000 (to start with!) to undertake these dispersal actions is coming out of the Environment Levy Major Initiatives & Catalyst Projects reserve will severely undermine the conservation outcomes the levy is clearly designed to achieve.  The Environment Levy policy  objectives clearly do not support the type of ad hoc non-aligned activity it is proposed to be siphoned off for.

The key objectives of the policy are;

• protecting environmentally significant land through acquisition, as part of a wider strategy for landscape and habitat protection and rehabilitation
• responding to the region’s key environmental challenges and producing on-ground actions (read for ecological sustainabilty)
• partnering with a range of stakeholders, community based and government, to improve conservation and sustainability outcomes
• open, transparent management of Environment Levy revenue.

The Environment Levy is under review early next week as part of Council's budget review process.
That it will remain intact and maintain its capacity to continue delivering the fantastic conservation outcomes for the region through aquistions & environmental programs is becoming more and more uncertain. There is a real risk that the levy could be diminished, broken up and siphoned off so we need to reinforce the importance of keeping the Policy as is.

It would make all the difference if we contacted all Councillors to urgently express support for the policy as it stands. You may also want to add your comments and experiences about how the levy has contributed to the region as you see it.