The Ballina Shire Council has revealed receipt of $100,000 in land rent for its first temporary emergency housing village on the Northern Rivers.
Details of the lease between the state and local government for land at the Wollongbar Sports Fields had been kept secret from the public until this week.
When the lease was first presented to the Ballina Shire Council in April last year, council staff said its terms were to remain ‘strictly confidential’.
The government would be paying rent to the council on a monthly basis, staff said at the time, with ‘the option to terminate with one month’s notice’.
Steph Cooke’s pod village legacy
The former coalition government last year announced $350 million for up to 2,000 modular houses on public land for disaster survivors across the Northern Rivers.
Former flood recovery minister Steph Cooke said the funding was in addition to other government supported accommodation options, with rental support available to survivors staying in holiday houses, flats and parks.
The state asked local governments to suggest suitable sites for the temporary housing villages with the Ballina Shire Council listing a dozen, including the Wollongbar Sports Fields.
The plateau land was the first site on the Northern Rivers to be approved, with up to 25 modular homes to be on offer.
When Ms Cooke officially opened the village, she said it would be able to accommodate up to 220 people.
More than a year later, Ballina Shire Council staff notes on a government request for a lease extension at Wollongbar show 136 people living in the village, which features 107 self-contained units ranging in size from studio pods to four-bedroom accommodation and caravans.
Government-appointed community housing provider North Coast Community Housing is in charge of allocating accommodation, carrying out day to day management and providing on-site security.
The government’s lease agreement means costs for services such as water and electricity are excluded from rent to the Ballina Shire Council, council staff notes show.
Rental figure revealed in budget black and white
But while the exact figure paid by the government in rent for the site is technically still confidential, staff notes for a quarterly council budget update included in this month’s ordinary council meeting agenda show expected receipt of $100,000 by the end of this financial year.
Notes on the Ballina Shire Council’s third quarterly review for the 2022/23 financial year show the local government’s sportsfields reserve, which falls under the Open Spaces budget division, has increased by $100,000, ‘being the rental income received for the Wollongbar Sportsfield’.
The government’s current lease is due to expire in April next year but the council is expected to approve a one-year extension in its meeting today.
‘The budget for the rental income received for the Wollongbar Sportsfields is being increased by $100,000 to a revised budget of $185,000 for 2023/24, to the bring the budget to the total of amounts received to date from the NSW Reconstruction Authority,’ staff notes for today’s meeting show.
‘These amounts are transferred to the sportsfields reserve.’
Greens Ballina Shire Councillor Simon Chate last year lost a bid to have the rental money used for a new bikepath connecting Wollongbar to the nearby plateau village of Alstonville.
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