Have your say on $590m budget priorities

While all eyes may be on Canberra for the delivery of tonight’s federal budget, Wollongong City Council is promoting its annual budget, which seems to have a little something for everyone.

During a presentation to the latest meeting of Neighbourhood Forum 5, council staff said that over the next four years, council was expected to spend “at least 60 per cent of its capital budget on infrastructure renewal, with a large part of the remaining 40 per cent being invested in our West Dapto and waste programs.”

Among big-ticket items in the more than 360 projects to be funded between now and 2030 are new community centres and libraries for Helensburgh and Warrawong, the $10.5 million extension of the North Wollongong Beach Seawall, a major upgrade of the old town hall building and city art gallery, and skate parks for Thirroul and central Wollongong at a total cost of $5 million.

To help pay for the projects, council plans to increase rates by 3.9 per cent for the 2026-27 financial year in line with the rate pegging maximum for Wollongong. Proposed fees and other charges will generally increase by 4.7 per cent.

Responding to questions at Neighbourhood Forum 5, Council staff confirmed the Continental Pool concourse would be repainted this winter. The entire concourse will be replaced by 2030 at a cost of more than $9.5 million.

The Illawarra Flame has reported on concerns raised by pool users that the facility has been neglected for years, and they’d like to see major improvements completed before the pool’s centenary year in 2028.

The Stuart Park toilet block at North Wollongong will be extended at a cost of $2.45 million. The ageing loos attached to Levendi’s cafe at Belmore Basin will be either replaced or upgraded to meet disability access requirements at a cost of $2.7 million.

NF5 members expressed disappointment over nothing in the budget to create a cafe in Wollongong’s Botanic Gardens, saying the $1 million allocated in 1987 had been redirected to help pay for the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre. Nearly four decades later, the garden still has no permanent cafe.

Despite this, more than $3 million will be invested in the gardens to upgrade the greenhouse, depot, toilets and the Kawasaki Bridge.

There will be refurbishments for the City Beach building and the North Beach Kiosk and Pavilion where work would be staged to enable the popular venue to be able to continue to trade.

At Beaton Park Leisure Centre, which has been under review by council and its consultants for well over 18 months, $800,000 has been allocated for the design of a new multipurpose facility, as well as $65,000 for minor works at Ted Tobin Hall. Improvements are also planned for the centre’s pool, gymnasium and athletics track.

In good news for users of the Figtree Community Hall and Wollongong‘s Senior Citizens Centre at Gwynneville, multimillion-dollar renovations will take place.

Picnic shelters at Flagstaff Hill will be replaced at a cost of nearly $1.5 million and nearly $6 million will be invested in car park upgrades near the lighthouse over the next two years.

There will be playground upgrades at Wollongong’s Lang Park, Gwynneville‘s Anne Street and Beaton Park, and $1 million will be invested in the replacement of outdated parking meters in central Wollongong.

There’s also money to replace one of the worst stretches of footpath in Wollongong’s CBD, along Crown Street.

Members of NF5 noted there was no allocation in the budget for capital works in preparation for a major housing project near the University of Wollongong at Gwynneville.

The community has until May 19 to provide feedback. The budget can be viewed on council’s community engagement page, where there's an online feedback form, or residents can send an email to ourfuture@wollongong.nsw.gov.au