PLANS to build a roof over the Horsham Regional Livestock Exchange has gained momentum.
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Horsham Rural City Council is actively seeking cash after six councillors unanimously supported the recommended funding streams at a special council meeting on Monday.
Cr Josh Koenig was absent.
The council will seek a total of $3.03 million from all tiers of government to start construction by July 2019.
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In his report, infrastructure director John Martin recommended the council seek $1.49 million from the federal government’s Building Better Regions fund.
Meanwhile, the council will commit $1.54 million to the project in the form of an internal loan that will be repaid by the livestock exchange over 16 years. It was also suggested the council advocate for project funding from the state government.
Mr Martin said the preferred option was to roof the full exchange area to deliver the best value per unit spend.
“Should only partial funding be made available, then it is possible to roof the exchange in stages – but this is less desirable,” he said.
Councillor David Grimble said it was a “big milestone” because the council had not been able to seek funding for the project before.
The project was originally identified as priority in Horsham Regional Livestock Exchange’s master plan, but there was not “sufficient documentation” to complete a funding application.
“The master plan spoke about our future needs but it did not drill into the content of the roofing project and the critical aspects to support the project,” Cr Grimble said.
Now a business case had been developed, Cr Grimble said the council had a “strong case” to push the project forward.
“Given the fact that there has been a number of facilities that have gone through the transition of building yards and updating facilities to have a roof, the conversation about welfare is front-and-centre of the minds of our key donors,” he said.
Cr Grimble said the upgrade would improve animal and human welfare, allow water to be harvested from the roof to use in the truck wash and reduce labour costs.
Cr Grimble said the industry standard had an expectation that new and old yards be retrofitted with covers. He said the project’s success would maintain the exchange’s reputation as a “high-quality selling centre” in the state.
The Hamilton and Ballarat livestock exchanges are the two saleyards in the state with roofing.
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