Freehold Land Owners Receive Increase in Royalties
Andrew Byrnes
Phone: 1300 007 662
Maranoa Regional Council maintains one of the largest road networks in rural Queensland, and have taken steps to improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of their road maintenance and construction activities.
In an effort to minimise the costs associated with transporting resources to road work sites throughout the region, Council has endorsed their first consistent royalty value for quarry material sourced from freehold land.
Maranoa Regional Council’s Director of Operations, Mr. Andrew Byrnes, commented on the challenges faced by the department, saying “it is sometimes logistically impractical and financially unviable to service all of Council’s road maintenance and construction activities from the Roma Quarry site”.
An alternative to transporting resources from the Roma Quarry throughout the region has been to source materials from freehold land. Mr. Byrnes highlighted the fact that land holders had been cooperative in assisting Council through this process.
Prior to amalgamation, several Councils were using the Department of Environment and Resource Management’s concessional rate (currently $0.57/loose m3 + GST) when sourcing materials from freehold properties, however no consistent policy was adopted.
Increased demand for resources and a competitive market has made acquiring quality freehold gravel difficult. In an effort to remain competitive, Maranoa Regional Council has endorsed an increase in the royalty value for these resources.
Council will now be applying a consistent royalty value of $1.00/ loose m3 + GST, payable to landholders for all quarry material sourced from freehold land for the purposes of road maintenance and construction activities. This will help ensure that Council has access to the resources needed to complete planned road construction and maintenance.
“Under Council’s adopted Capital Works Budget for 2009/10, it is estimated that approximately 30 kilometres of gravel resheeting will be delivered within the financial year”, Mr. Byrnes said.
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