BY LAUREN FREEMANTLE

Lord Mayoral candidate for the Newcastle Independents, Kath Elliott, has today voiced her concerns over Monday night’s meeting, where a presentation of Council’s monthly finances was not made.

According to Ms Elliott, Council usually presents its monthly finances at the end of each subsequent month, however the June figures, which also represent Council’s draft end of financial year numbers, were not provided on Monday night.

“The community did not see what has happened in the last financial year; those results were withheld, which is unprecedented,” she says, “Those results would have shown what Council’s surplus or deficit would have been, at the end of June 30.”

Ms Elliott believes the Labor/Greens alliance may be deliberately withholding the information from the community.

“The Newcastle Independents suspect that we have a large surplus at the end of this year,” she says, “that coincides with Mrs Nelmes and her Labor/Greens alliance giving us a 46.9% rate rise. If we’re paying nearly half our rates again and there’s a big surplus, one has to question- why can’t Council spend it? Do they need that rate money?

“I suspect that Mrs Nelmes and the alliance don’t want us to know what that final figure looks like, and we’re calling on her to release them now.”

Around 15 matters were discussed at Monday night’s Council meeting, including a motion to conduct a review into Newcastle’s use of building cladding and a motion to explore the prospect of a micro music festival in the region.
Kath Elliott, mayoral candidate.