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Council & Business

8 December, 2022

Council appoints consultancy panel

The Central Goldfields Shire Council has appointed a civil engineering consultancy panel to support its capital works program and design methodologies to construct infrastructure assets. At last month’s ordinary council meeting, councillors moved...

By Riley Upton

The Central Goldfields Shire Council has appointed its civil engineering consultancy panel.
The Central Goldfields Shire Council has appointed its civil engineering consultancy panel.

The Central Goldfields Shire Council has appointed a civil engineering consultancy panel to support its capital works program and design methodologies to construct infrastructure assets.

At last month’s ordinary council meeting, councillors moved to appoint the consultancy panel, which includes some 15 businesses and firms.

According to the report tabled to council, the intent of the panel is to provide required engineering designs and methodologies to construct complex infrastructure assets like roads and bridges.

The report further states the potential value over the term of the contract, which is set for three years with the option to extend for a further two years, may exceed $500,000.

Speaking during the meeting, councillor Chris Meddows-Taylor said providing approvals for works at both a residential and larger scale was a challenge, something the panel would help address.

“One of the great challenges of local government is the simple issue that when members of the community want work done, approvals given and works authorised, they want that done yesterday,” he said.

“The other side of that though is for companies that want to obtain works approval from local government, they want to be assured there is a proper and due process that is fair and equitable.

“How do you balance those two things? It’s not easy and is always a challenge but one of the very effective ways of doing that is through consultancy panels.

“When we have work that we often allocate in certain trades or professions, such as electricians or plumbers and in this case, civil engineers, we don’t have to go through a process each time of putting things out for tender and causing a delay for applicants — we can satisfy that through due process via a panel.”

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