Budget preparations are well and truly underway for the 2025/2026 financial year. Council has been the recipient of several grants that will come to fruition during 2025/2026.

These grants will help our ac­tive spaces to be revitalised and also have a positive economic and environmental impact with grants provided for energy and climate change initiatives.

These include the following capital expenditure grants:

• Community Energy Upgrades Fund – Grant amount $119,581 for solar panels and upgrades at Pontville Pavilion.
• Active Transport Fund – Grant amount $500,000 for the design and construction of a shared pathway connect­ing an existing path along East Derwent Highway to the path for the new Bridge­water Bridge and extending a path along Glenstone Road, Brighton to link to the path­way network within Brighton township.
• Community Climate Change Actions Grants Program – Grant amount $20,000 for Kutalayna Collective and Derwent Catchment Project to col­laborate on Community Climate Change – creating and hosting events at Green Point Reserve, Bridgewater.
• Isolated Communities Resilience Grants – Grant amount $6,000 for funding to purchase specific resources and equipment to support the operation of evacuation and recovery centres in our area.
• Keeping Children Safe – Grant amount of $2,000 from Department of Pre­mier and Cabinet to run a Youth Week event ‘Party in the Park’.

And of course, a reminder of the successful collaboration that was announced by the Al­banese Government in January between Council and TasWa­ter, which saw a grant of $10 million dollars towards unlock­ing a growth precinct in South Brighton near the Brighton High School. Residents would have already seen the start of these works by TasWater in recent months to upgrade the pumpstation in this area and Council will begin their works on the approved masterplan in the coming year.

As a Council, we are fortunate to have been able to secure many grants for services and infrastructure and keep our rates increases to a minimum over the years. As we increase our services and community assets, there is also a signif­icant increase in the cost of maintaining these, with the cost of materials and services continuing to increase sub­stantially. The challenge facing Council is that with high levels of services and improved com­munity infrastructure, Council will need to increase revenue through various means to assist with maintaining these services and assets to a high standard for our communities.

It is with great excitement and anticipation, as the Brighton Community News goes to print, that the Brighton Town Square is almost complete, and an official opening is just around the corner. We couldn’t be hap­pier with how this important gathering place for the Brighton community has come together.

On behalf of Council, I wish everyone a very happy and safe Easter break.

Brighton Mayor Leigh Gray