Wakefield's Annual Community Plan Adopted for 2025/26
Council’s Annual Community Plan for 2025/26 was adopted at the July Council meeting.
Detailed in this year’s plan is a capital expenditure budget of $9.29M which consists of $8.08M in renewal works and $1.21M in new capital works.
The focus on renewal follows Council’s Infrastructure Asset Management Plans that are a driver for both the Annual Community Plan and Long-Term Financial Plan.
Mayor Rodney Reid said this year’s budget continues to deliver on core Wakefield 2030 deliverables, while considering a conservative approach to the Annual Community Plan.
“Our focus is on maintaining the assets we currently have and working towards reducing renewal works outlined within our Infrastructure Asset Management Plans,” Mayor Rodney Reid said.
“It’s important for Council to work towards reducing our renewal figures each year, the unsealed road network is a great example of where we continue to reduce the backlog of renewal year on year.”
“The renewal of our sealed road network is a large component of this year’s capital works budget, spending $3.3M on preventative and major reseals to ensure our sealed road network is maintained throughout Wakefield.
Key projects in this year’s plan include:
- $1.85M for Koolunga Road (carried forward from 2024-25) with the reconstruction and resealing of 5.31km of road.
- $300k for the unsealed reconstruction of Kallora Road from Goldney Road to Port Lorne Road (5.11km).
- $625k for the Port Wakefield Tidal Lagoon Footbridge & Lookout (Master Plan Stage two, carried forward from 2024-25)
Rate in the dollar valuations were adopted as;
- Residential - $0.3144 cents in the dollar
- Commercial (Shop, Office, Other) - $0.372 cents in the dollar
- Industrial (Light, Other) - $0.372 cents in the dollar
- Primary Production - $0.1891 cents in the dollar
- Vacant Land - $0.337 - cents in the dollar
- Other - $0.360 cents in the dollar
Council is targeting an operating deficit of $175K in 2025-26: resulting from operating revenues of $20.24M and operating expenses of $20.41M.
The primary reason for this deficit is due to dredging of the Tidal Swimming Pool in Port Wakefield carried over from 2024-25.
An average general rate increase of 4.7% was adopted for 2025/26 which will source $11.55M in general rates.
The full Annual Community Plan for 2025/26 can be viewed on Council’s website at wrc.sa.gov.au.