Services & Organisation Committee Meeting - August 2023 Transcript

1 ATTENDANCE & APOLOGIES ¶

▶ 00:00:15

00:01:00 Can I please request before commencing the meeting that everyone has their phones on silent or turned off. Start with confirmation of minutes. Can I have a mover? No. Thank you Councillor Jo and a seconder please. Thank you Councillor Murphy. No discussion, all in favour? Thank you. We'll now go to presentations and deputations. There are no presentations and there are no deputations. There are no presentations and there are no deputations. Reports for consideration of the committee. We'll move to item number 5. Item number 5.1. Amendment of general committee and ordinary meeting dates October 2023. And I'll refer this to Acting CEO Larry Sengstock. Welcome. Can you please give us an overview of the report in advance. Speaker 1: This is just a request to change the date of a meeting for our next round given that a number of us, including myself, will be attending the LGAQ conference in Gladstone.

2 CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES ¶

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Nothing was transcribed under this heading — a stretch of the recording with no speech the model could make out.

5.1 AMENDMENT OF GENERAL COMMITTEE & ORDINARY MEETING DATES OCTOBER 2023 ¶

▶ 00:01:39· Carried unanimously 4-0 from council's minutes

00:02:00 It's a very important conference. I think it's something that we get a lot from in terms of a council and being part of that. So it coincides with the dates. So it's in October. So we're looking to defer the date of the general committee meeting. From the 16th of October to the 23rd. And then the ordinary meeting, which backs onto that from the 19th, defer that to the 26th. So the dates would be 23 and 26 October. So it's really just a formal formality in terms of we're able to do this. It's within our standing orders to do it. And so we're just requesting that we have that put in process. I'll second it. Councillor Lorentson: Thank you. All in favour? Thanks, Larry. Oh, excuse me. We have a question. Sorry, Tom. That was, can we?

00:03:00 Councillor Wegener: I'm not going to change anything, but I just, it's just so ironic that I booked my holiday to Mexico leaving the 23rd. So it's okay because the majority of rules, again, you guys are definitely more important. And I'll still be able to zoom into the ordinary meeting on Thursday if at all possible. But it's been a very awkward time. And you're awesome with cha-cha. Gracias. Councillor Lorentson: Thank you, Councillor Wegman. We'll now move onto number six, reports for noting by the committee. 6.1 Capital Program 2022-23, delivery status. And a welcome to the desk. Speaker 4: I'd like to introduce Melissa Sheppard, who's our Infrastructure Planning Officer.

6.1 CAPITAL PROGRAM 2022/23 DELIVERY STATUS ¶

▶ 00:03:49· Carried unanimously 4-0 from council's minutes

00:04:00 Councillor Lorentson: Thank you, Shaun, because I had a bit of a blank, as you probably could tell. I appreciate that. Speaker 4: And I'm going to actually ask Melissa to present this report and answer questions. Thank you, Melissa. Speaker 3: No worries. So I'll just provide a summary on the report to start off with. So the status update of the Capital Works Program as at the 30th of June 2023 reports on our spend of the 2022-23 financial year budget for the Capital Works Program, which was $54.1 million. $49.8 million of that was in direct control of the Infrastructure Services team. And the remaining $4.3 consists of different ICT projects and fleet management. As at the 30th of June 2023, we had expended 79% of that budget. The Road Reseal Program has expended $6.2 million of the $6.8 million budget for the financial year also. The Design Services team continue to support 56 different projects

00:05:00 and their own Design Services projects for implementation with a design and construction value of approximately $16.7 million. And the Planning team are supporting key master plan initiatives with an estimated future project investment value of $15 million plus. On top of that, I would just like to clarify an inconsistency that has been noted within the report. So on the front page, point four of the Executive Summary, the Road Reseal Budget states $6.8 million, which is correct. But on page three, roughly halfway down the page, it states a $5.7 million budget. You stole my thunder. I was going deep. So just to clarify that inconsistency and apologies for that. But the statement on the first page in point four is correct at $6.8 million. Speaker 4: Thank you for clarifying. I think you noted that when this report was drafted, the expenditure amount was $5.9 million, but that's now been since corrected in the financials

00:06:00 to actually be $6.2 million of the $6.8 million budget. That's correct. Councillor Jurisevic: The other inconsistency there, though, is that it says the budget was $5.7 million in one page and it was $6.8 million in the other page. Speaker 3: Yes, that's correct. So $6.8 million is the correct budget value. $6.8. Councillor Lorentson: And on page 12, just talking about inconsistency, percentage of CWP, that's at such a 101%. OK. No worries. We get extra here. No, that's great. 19.1% inconsistency. They're overachieving again. That's right. Councillor Jurisevic: They've all been rounded up. Councillor Lorentson: I'm going to throw it to the table. Councillors, do you have any questions, please? Councillor Jurisevic: Most significant projects that we've got on the agenda that will be carried over as a result of... Speaker 4: Yes. Councillors, we've scheduled a workshop or a briefing with you on Thursday of this week to go through the projects which have been carried over and the new projects and to give confidence of, you know,

00:07:00 the projects that we think we can deliver. And there's some uncertainties about the program moving forward due to both resources and also consultation programs in and around the election dates that we just want to ensure the councillors are fully across. Councillor Wilkie: Thank you. Madam Chair. Thank you for the excellent report. A question around the emergent works that occur during the 2022-23 financial year. There's a detailed list there. But I'm wondering, is the... What strategies have you got in mind? Is there a plan in place to help us avoid having so many emergent works? And does the increased asset condition reporting, including more detailed componentisation of assets, help us better plan for these, to get in front of these issues before they emerge? Speaker 4: Yeah, certainly. Every asset should have a program maintenance period and an end-of-life, you know, expectation date.

00:08:00 And that sets up your schedule for your annual maintenance programming. And then also sets up expectations of when you're actually replacing the asset. And the more we get to know about our assets and from the presentation we had from Brian O'Connor last week to councillor, you know, that's so that we have confidence with our roads and pathway assets. We have confidence or increasing confidence with our stormwater assets. But we don't have much confidence with our park assets nor our building and facilities assets. And then the next priority. So that's the first thing. So ideally, we would have a very comprehensive asset management plan and we can forecast that in coming years, there'll be a lot more accuracy with those asset classes. But then we have to remember that there's always things that can go wrong, you know, whether it's a disaster and, you know, usually they're funded by other agencies, but sometimes we do have to pick up the bill. And also assets don't always perform to their, you know, expected end of life. You know, we've all bought a refrigerator or some appliance, which is, you know, meant to last five years or ten years and it's broken down after two.

00:09:00 So, you know, I can't guarantee that there will always be, you know, no emerging asset things. But certainly a better investment in our asset management system would actually help reduce emergent works. Yeah. Councillor Wilkie: And the other question was about the $6.2 million expenditure of the $6.8 million resealed program. This is really a proactive program, isn't it? So it's not to say that there's $600,000 worth of trouble out there. Like the roads are still in pretty good condition. Are any roads suffering as a result of that underspend is what I'm saying. Speaker 3: I can clarify that one slightly. So the increase in the budget from the $5.7 million that was documented on page three was in regard to the David Loway works, which did come through council as well for emergent funding. That work came in significantly less than what it was budgeted for. So there was a short...

00:10:00 There was, sorry, a savings made on that additional budget that we had applied for. So there was a bit of a savings there which wasn't allocated to a project that didn't progress. But instead, I suppose, a good news story that we were able to undertake the works a little bit. Councillor Wilkie: So you're able to undertake the scheduled works for less... Just the underspend is not an indication of an under-delivery of the planned works. It's a saving. Speaker 3: Yes. Councillor Wilkie: Well, that's a very important distinction. Mm-hm. And well done. Mm-hm. Thank you. Councillor Lorentson: And... Councillor... You're on the chair. Just in terms of human resource capability, I note on page 14, there's reference to staffing shortages in a heated construction market. Do we have currently the capability to manage all these projects and tenders? Speaker 4: So that would be the subject of a council briefing on Thursday to give council a lot more information

00:11:00 about our current resourcing model. Some of the challenges we have is that our... As an example, which would be subject to a full briefing of the council on Thursday, is that our resourcing model runs at about 2.7% of the capital works program, whereas the industry standard's about five. So we're actually not... And when you look at the forecast of the program moving forward, particularly with waste projects coming on board, but we're more than likely under-resourced. So... And if you look at the extent of delivery with our resources, we're actually hitting well above the mark. Our ratepayers are actually getting very, very good value in terms of the programs we're delivering with available resources. So that's the first area. The other one is about attracting suitable talent that actually is up to the challenges of the projects that are up to. But increasingly, these projects which are retrofitting into existing areas of Noosa, whether it's Noosa Grilled Foreshore Infrastructure or Noosa Junction Streetscape, are really complex. Even if we're in Brisbane or Sydney, these are very, very complex projects. And we need to ensure that we've got the right talent

00:12:00 to actually lead those. We've got two current critical vacancies within infrastructure planning, design and delivery, which is the design coordinator role and also transport and traffic coordination. So... Which leads such things as the parking study and the transport strategy. So we need to make sure that we've recruited a key talent in those roles to actually confidently lead the programs. Councillor Lorentson: In terms of recruitment, do we outsource that or is that done in-house? Speaker 4: We deal with it in-house. So it's supported by HR business support. I find the recruitment processes here to be quite efficient. So I don't find them to be an hindrance. So I've used external consultants in the past. And you've got to remember that usually you'd use external consultants for, you know, director or CEO levels. At this manager or coordinator level, the internal support to get the right talent is more than sufficient to get the right talent. We're in final negotiations with the candidate for the design coordinator position. I've just got one final referee check to perform.

00:13:00 That candidate is quite a different skill set to what we've done previously. It's actually an architect who actually specialises in precinct development. Speaker 3: Yeah, wow. Speaker 4: And also a very large commercial property sector background. So in terms of that sort of talent mix, working with stakeholders at places like Noosa Heads and Noosa Junction should be a really, really good fit. And used to coordinating all the different disciplines of civil design, may also have architect, you know, planners to actually deliver a cohesive policy. We're reporting for or sort of sourcing a different talent mix to deal with the challenges moving forward. The transport and traffic coordinator, that's a very hotly contested skill set at the moment. And you'll note that, you know, we're really losing staff to TMR who are trying to resource up their skill sets. So for that role, we're actually working with our HR department to have a role reclassification to offer a high level enumeration and hopefully go out to market because our current recruitment process did not bring forth any candidates that could actually achieve the job.

00:14:00 Councillor Lorentson: It's so commendable. So we've just been proactive in that space for maybe the criteria to just open up just a new talent mix. Speaker 4: I think it just gets back to ensuring that we've got the right people to lead our community through these quite interesting and challenging design exercises. Councillor Lorentson: Fantastic. Questions? Yeah, sure. Councillor Jurisevic: Thank you. Within this report, having the emergent works of the financial year listed in this way, I think is something we haven't really seen before. I think it's an important distinction to have that there and make us aware of the level of emergent works that pop up through the year. And that obviously has an impact on resourcing capacity to function and deliver on the anticipated capital works programme that we started at the beginning of the budget process. I'm interested to know the value of those emergent works for the workshops coming up, just as a total,

00:15:00 but also as a percentage of the original programme, how that impacts and maybe look back for a couple of years and see how much impact emergent works have had, and maybe get a dollar value or a percentage of the original programme and maybe look at our budgeting in the future as having an emergent works allocation, sitting there ready to go, being part of the overall capital works programme, but helping to take that impact off staff, perhaps recognising that we're going to have emergent works coming up, we need to be resourced or in for it. It's only a thought process. Speaker 4: Yeah, I'd be happy to take that request for information on notice, councillor, and distribute it to the councillors. Councillor Jurisevic: I think it would be a bit of a start going back for a few years to see what emergent works have popped up and what the impact on the capital value programme would be. I think that would better inform us as to how we go forward in the budget process. Speaker 4: We'll take that on notice and distribute that information to the councillors. Thank you. Councillor Lorentson: I have a question in terms of the tender submissions. Okay, Jay, the new tender submissions,

00:16:00 a little bit of a broader questions. When we go out to tender, Speaker 4: we do ask for a time period that the relevancy of the price, which matches when we expect the project to be delivered by. It can vary a little bit and I'd probably prefer if I had someone from the procurement team to answer the question specifically, but there is a forecast that actually assumes that the works will be completed within 12 months and the guaranteed price has to be delivered within that programme. So it's a fixed price for that length of time. Councillor Lorentson: For that length of time. Okay. And in terms of deep dives, is there any appetite to have a look at just, you know, current blowouts with, you know, increased materials and supplies? Are we looking at what happened and what we can do better next time round?

00:17:00 And I'm looking at, you know, things from documentation. If the documentation wasn't adequate, are you looking at what's happened over the last couple of years just to give an idea of how we just don't go back down that space again? Speaker 4: Yeah. So there's a couple of things. Firstly, we've been working, looking at overall market conditions. So material supply seems to be coming down. So it seems to be, you know, settling. But labour costs are still going through the roof. So there's still a lot of volatility in this space in terms of capital works. So that's the first thing, understanding what's happening in the industry trends and what the overall proportional increases are. And then second to that, we actually had a workshop this morning about the project big process for the next financial year and also for intermittent works. And actually, we want a whole new field whereby the project initiators actually describe how they've actually come up with the project cost estimates and what sort of allowances they've made for.

00:18:00 Do you want to talk more about that, Mel, about what we were talking about? Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely. So the current PID has a detailed cost breakdown in regard to internal and external costs, but it doesn't provide the initiator the ability to describe where the costs have been obtained, so we want that to gain a realistic cost estimate and providing that ability to describe where the pricing has come from and give managers and directors also reassurance to sign off on the project brief to know that they've done that legwork. I think we'll also help and be an opportunity to look back on potential missing items previously that's taken place where we can improve moving forward. Speaker 4: So it really flags the directors and then council that put as project initiation that there's a field that says this was pricing obtained in 2018. Well, that's a flag for all of us that that is

00:19:00 an inappropriate pricing mechanism. Ideally, that field should say this is based on quantity survey estimates obtained last month. So with an allowance factor that assumes two years of CPI blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So it gives you confidence that the budget sum is appropriate. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah, if we've got a design that's been in the drawer for a few years we should then revise the estimates Speaker 4: of the cost Councillor Jurisevic: of that project at today's cost. Yeah. Speaker 4: So it's more scrutiny that someone's just not writing a figure that they've pulled out of an old report. A lot more confidence in, you know, a lot more rigour associated with getting the pricing. Speaker 3: Just to add on that as well, Shaun, also the design and delivery teams regularly undertake lessons learnt workshops where they sit down and they go through large projects that they've undertaken and completed and reflect on different opportunities where they can improve moving forward as well. So as a group.

00:20:00 Councillor Lorentson: Any more questions on the table before? No. Can I have you to leave the report? Councillor Wegener? Oh, Councillor Mr. Rook. Speaker 5: I'll second it. I was just going to second it. Councillor Lorentson: No more discussion. All in favour please. Thank you. Well done. Thank you. Thank you, Shaun. That was amazing. Mel does all the work. So we now move into holiday packs and welcome to the table Robin. Robin Lawson. Robin Lawson. Hi. Nice to know you. How are you? Good. Welcome. Robin. Thank you. Can I ask if you could just give us a summary of the report in front of us. Thank you. Speaker 2: Certainly. So the report in front of you today is providing We are providing an update on the Noosa Holiday Parks Program with a period from 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023.

6.2 NOOSA HOLIDAY PARKS UPDATE ¶

▶ 00:20:25· Carried unanimously 4-0 from council's minutes

00:21:00 The report covers off on financial aspects, business outcomes, operational activities, capital works and the economic impact. Overall the Holiday Parks Program has performed really well in the financial year just gone. We achieved a revenue of $4.2 million which was an increase of $480,000 from the previous financial year representing an increase of 12.7%. We achieved an operational surplus of $1.2 million exceeding budget expectations by $470,000. The Noosa Holiday Parks are land designated by State for the purpose of caravanning and camping and recreational enjoyment so it's important that we also measure things like visitation to make sure we're fulfilling that responsibility. In the financial year just gone, we accommodated just over 60,000 visitors representing an overall economic contribution of $25 million to GDP

00:22:00 and an employment contribution of over 200 FTE jobs Australia-wide. Looking forward, we have secured forward bookings for the current financial year of $2.5 million already so we've got our eyes on the economy and the health of the economy in terms of people pulling back on discretionary spend. But the current position is that I think we're well suited to continue to perform strongly. Thank you. Speaker 5: I've got a question. Questions. Yes. What's your secret? I mean these are great numbers, you know. Like financial year increased, your revenue increased 23.3%. We've exceeded budget expectations by $472,000. I mean what are you doing to get these great numbers? Speaker 2: Look, I think we're probably seeing the culmination of three years of work plus a whole lot of activities before that.

00:23:00 It's never down to one thing. It's been a collective effort. So broadly speaking, I think we've got a great operator in place, so having a strong contractor. Ultimately with this industry, what I've learned is that everything is driven by the visitor. So if the visitor is having a good experience and they're paying money, then that's the same. That's the secret sauce. So what goes into that is making sure that our operations are strong. Our assets and parks and grounds and pathways look really sharp. We've got good rules and governance in place around credits and refunds. Things like having a pizza van. Our management operator on the ground delivers a really sharp operation and we've been able to get there through our contractual environment. Thank you. I think it's a combination of all those things. Councillor Jurisevic: Congratulations. Was there a return to camping and caravaning? Speaker 2: Yeah, there's definitely been a return to that post COVID.

00:24:00 So I talk quite frequently with the industry association and broadly across Queensland and Australia, the industry is certainly heading that way. I do know parks and areas where they're not seeing this level of occupancy. So I do think we've been able to elevate our product and really create a brand and a destination and a drive tourism destination. But definitely the industry is headed that way. Great. Well done. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah, that third paragraph in the summary has really caught my eye. 61,219 visitors not stayed. How many nights of stays have we had? Is that something you can... Speaker 2: Yeah, I think nights stayed is... Councillor Jurisevic: Just some people would say two nights, three nights a week. Speaker 2: Correct. Councillor Jurisevic: I'm sure I've got that metric. That would be a figure that would be interesting to say. Year on year out, how many nights of stays we get in each of those facilities?

00:25:00 Speaker 2: So overall, the nights stayed for the financial years gone were 83,240. Okay. Councillor Jurisevic: So on average, one and a half nights per person, roughly. The other interesting thing there, overall economic contribution of 25 million GDP and an economic... Sorry, employment contribution of 202 full-time jobs. Now, we wouldn't have employed 202 people full-time in three caravan camping facilities. Nor would we have generated $25 million in GDP. So how do those... How are those figures generated? And how are those... How is that employment contribution cut down? Speaker 2: Yeah. So the Caravanning Industry Association of Australia has a research body. And they have an online calculator that tells you how many nights of stays you've had. And then they have a background calculation that enables you to put in the number of nights sold and the total revenue. And from there, they have a background calculation that does input-output modelling to say, well, if you look through the entire supply chain from the point of someone selling a caravan

00:26:00 through to the point of someone cleaning an amenity block, if you've got this much visitation and revenue, what's the total value of that through the supply chain? Councillor Jurisevic: So it's formula driven. Speaker 2: Yes. Formula driven. And then they have a research team for the Australia-wide program. So that's a GDP. That's a gross domestic product contribution and an Australia-wide employment contribution. Councillor Jurisevic: And out of the number of nights of visitors that we have, how do we compare with other parts around... Are we high visitation, low visitation, medium visitation? How do we compare? That'd be interesting to see how Noosa is a destination for a caravanning and camping locale that compares to other locales. Yeah. Is that something that can be readily... Speaker 2: Sure. So a lot of these statistics are driven from the booking system. I know from speaking with my counterpart at Sunshine Coast Council that their parts enjoy a high level of visitation.

00:27:00 They run similar to the Noosa River model where you get the sort of four to six-week stay. So their occupancy is often exceeding 90%. Boring Point and North Shore are a different product. They're a regional location. And they're that hybrid camping and caravanning destination. I know from talking with counterparts at Fraser Coast or Rockhampton and Livingston that we're performing at the top end. Councillor Lorentson: Okay. Bridget? In terms of sort of localised data, do we have any understanding of the contribution to our own local economy? And do you work with Tourism Noosa in scraping that number? Noosa? Speaker 2: Yeah. So there's a couple of the people at Tourism Noosa. I've sat down with their data officer. So we catch up every now and again. And I keep an eye on their... As the Noosa holiday parks, we have a membership with Tourism Noosa.

00:28:00 So I jump on and have a look at their statistics. I think the... In terms of our regional contribution, the Caravanning Association of Australia did used to have a regional calculator. But I think it got difficult for them to input all the background that was unique to each area. Last time that calculator was operational, our regional contribution was 15 million. Yeah. Councillor Jurisevic: One other question. Robyn, we were talking about the powerheads and that being installed. Have we finished installing those yet? Are they in place and working? Or... Speaker 2: Yeah. So a couple of years ago, we installed metered powerheads at the Noosa River Holiday Park with the intent to charge for electricity. And drive down the consumption, influencing it through a price point. COVID sort of stepped in. And from there, we've also focused on other areas of the parks and building them up to get to this point of revenue and surplus. Our next focus is around sustainability.

00:29:00 How do we drive down our water usage? How do we drive down our electricity usage? Really taking that ESG look over the whole program. And part of that will be, how do we encourage our guests to not leave their aircon on while they go to the beach for five hours? And those types of things. And one of those mechanisms is to encourage that with a price or a cost. But there might also be an incentive mechanism whereby they're incentivized to reduce their usage. So there's a couple of drivers that we need to explore there. And we'll bring those to a workshop to you. Councillor Jurisevic: I thought we already... Yeah. Were they already sourced and installed, the power heads? Speaker 2: They're installed. And they're ready to go. Councillor Jurisevic: And we haven't implemented them yet? Speaker 2: No, because the implementation requires an interaction with our guests as the key stakeholder. And we've got to balance that out with visitation and appetite for wanting to come to the park.

00:30:00 So we've really had to try and take a balanced approach. I'm comfortable where we've got to as a business operation now that we can take that next step. I would probably defer the detail of that to Trent for an answer. I do know that typically it's been a general rate contribution. I think they might be moving towards that. Yeah, I might leave that with Trent because there may be a different approach in that Councillor Wilkie: space. In that case, that amount accounts for the equivalent of about 2.5% rates increase that we didn't need to impose on rate payers. That's right. So that shows the value to rate payers for real investment in these holiday parks.

00:31:00 Speaker 2: Absolutely. Councillor Wilkie: Not only does it provide an affordable holiday option for families and residents in this a shop, like you say, that's the culmination of a lot of great work over many years. Moving towards the integrated management model, we've got one operator and a consistent management approach to all three holiday parks. We've got record visitation overall, record returns. What is the significance of the TripAdvisor award that you've got there? What is that? And how significant is it? Speaker 2: Yes, so last year in 2022, all three parks received the Traveller's Choice Award. That's fantastic. Significance, well, I guess it's the metric of how you're perceived within the consumer industry. So to get an award across all three parks is not something that we'd achieved before.

00:32:00 Noosa Rivers always performs strongly in that space. But for me, the significance is getting those awards for our regional areas, which are maybe not so well known, but offer a really unique and wonderful, you know, visit or tourist experience to our region and something different to the main hub. So it was really pleasing to receive those. Councillor Wilkie: And you've, you've increased the revenue. Not only by record visitation, but also really environmentally and economically responsible practices in terms of managing your expenditure, which is fantastic. Speaker 2: We've been able to drive savings through an integrated facilities model whereby we package up all the works for our facilities management and engage all those activities through a centralised approach. So we're able to get value for money, resources can be deployed more effectively across a range of activities and it delivers multiple things.

00:33:00 It's driven down, it's driven down customer complaints. It's driven up revenue. It's contributed to the overall look and feel. I know going to the parks now, they just look sharp and well presented. Yeah. So it's. Councillor Wilkie: Is it, is it true you may be considering cabins for Boring Point? Yeah. Or is that just a loose, some loose talk I might have heard? Speaker 2: Well, look, I'm always considering ways of improving the commercial return, but I guess the way up is if you convert a camping site that's say being occupied at 80% and then you invest into a cabin that might have a higher price point, but then a lower occupancy, cause it might just be a weekend, you really need to do that comparative analysis about where you'll end up and where's the right place for it. Councillor Wilkie: And that will give you an indication of what people want as well. Speaker 2: Correct. Yeah. Councillor Wilkie: Apart from saying, this is a report you ought to frame, because it's, it has a beautiful

00:34:00 set of numbers and something you can really be proud of because it is a combination of a lot of work over many years. Speaker 2: It's very much a collective effort. Councillor Wilkie: It's very, very team, team player of you. My, my only question, and it's not a negative, is the only holiday holiday that you've had that has fewer visitors than the previous years is the Noosa River Holiday Park, which, is there any, do you have any sense of what might be going on there, why the numbers are stronger in other areas, in other parks, and they haven't surpassed their previous levels at that particular venue? Speaker 2: So I think in terms of visitor numbers, it can depend on the customer segmentation. So there might be less families where there's four. Within the visitation for that night and down to a couple that might be two. Councillor Wilkie: Oh, I see. Yes. Speaker 2: Yeah. So I haven't put occupancy in largely because occupancy is driven by the number of sites

00:35:00 and that's changed over time. So it's a, it's been difficult for a true measure. So I would say with Noosa River our revenues are high and the occupancy is high. Yes. We just might have less visitors because our visitor groups may not have more couples and families. Councillor Jurisevic: Yes. But if there's four people in a site space and two people in a site in the caravan. Correct. Based on family, the visitor numbers appear down, but the visitation percentage of occupancy is probably as high if not higher. That's right. Councillor Lorentson: I've got another question before I ask for a new one. In terms of the expansion of existing holiday parks and opportunity for new holiday parks, we've already been in discussion about John's Landing. My question is the RV market. That's a huge market. And when you were talking before about cabins and the cost of having cabins, RV markets don't have all that, they don't need toilets because the toilets are already built in there.

00:36:00 It's a totally different model. Has there been any consideration in exploring opportunities with RVs? Speaker 2: Yeah. So within our region, there's two RV stopover parks. One of the parks currently located in Cooroy. And one is on council land and it's coordinated by the Chamber of Commerce there. In terms of demand for more, we're not... I looked at the numbers for Cooroy RV a couple of weeks ago and I think there's more space still to take up more demand if it was needed. It is an interesting space in that they are self-contained. I think we need to remember, for example, at Boring Point Campground, we do have a lot of caravans that are self-contained themselves and they use their own facilities. So in a way, we do have that market. It's just not labelled as an RV market. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah. You've got camping spots and power sites and service sites and other sites that all

00:37:00 of these, you know, can facilitate depending on the services that they require. Speaker 2: But in terms of expansion, I think we definitely... The demand and the uptake of our sites is starting to provide a compelling case for expansion. So we're looking at expanding our expansion into other areas and now building our program into other locations. Councillor Lorentson: Thank you. Can I have a move, Councillor Wood? Yes, Madam Chair. I'll second. Seconder, Ms Stewart. No more discussion. All the... Just congratulations and thank you. Speaker 2: Absolutely. Big team effort. Yeah, well done. Speaker 5: And to the team, Robin, thank you. But you worked so hard. Thank you. Thank you very much. Speaker 2: Thank you. Awesome. Councillor Lorentson: Thank you, Councillors. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah, well, I think we're all in favour. We're both... All in favour? Yeah. Councillor Lorentson: All in favour of this? Yeah. Great. Unanimous. Thank you. Thank you. There's no confidential matters to be discussed today. So I note that this meeting is closed at the time two...

7 CONFIDENTIAL SESSION ¶

▶ 00:37:45

Nothing was transcribed under this heading — a stretch of the recording with no speech the model could make out.

8 MEETING CLOSURE ¶

▶ 00:37:54

00:38:00 Two o'clock. ...and the next meeting will be the general meeting next Monday. Thank you, Councillors. Speaker 5: Well done, Madam Chair. Councillor Lorentson: Thank you, Madam Chair. And welcome again. I'll see you. Thank you. The session is now closed.