Greater Dandenong’s $1.4m boost

THE City of Greater Dandenong community is set to benefit from $1.4 million in federal funding announced by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd at an Australian Council of Local Government meeting on Tuesday last week.
The funding is part of the Commonwealth’s $300 million Regional and Local Community Infrastructure Program to boost local economic development and support jobs around the country.
Greater Dandenong CEO John Bennie welcomed the announcement, which he said would be allocated when guidelines for the funding were available.
“The City of Greater Dandenong, as part of the Municipal Association of Victoria, has been active in lobbying both state and federal governments for funding for a number of important local infrastructure projects,” Mr Bennie said.
“This funding will provide a major boost to the City of Greater Dandenong. We have been told that the funding can be used for refurbishing and upgrading infrastructure that wasn’t catered for in the budget, so we have a couple of ideas already.”
He said councillors and council officers would meet next Monday to discuss projects on which the funding could be spent.
“We will have no problem spending the funding,” Mr Bennie said. “Support from our state and federal governments is essential to assist local councils in delivering quality services to local communities while keeping up with the demands placed on us through growing populations and ageing infrastructure.
“We look forward to receiving the funding and delivering to the community some exciting projects in the near future.”
Projects funded by the program must be completed by 30 September 2009.