Gunnedah Impound Facility could get $4.5 million facelift

Heated debate erupted in the Gunnedah Shire Council chambers during the ordinary council meeting on Wednesday, July 19 about whether the $4.4 million upgrade to the Gunnedah Impound Facility was far too much.

Councillors agreed the pound needs to be upgraded, but couldn't come to an agreement on the cost.

Councillor Robert Hoddle said he was aware the pound was in a desperate need of an upgrade but that the price tag of $4.4m was "absolutely ridiculous".

"We could buy a motel for that," Cr Hoddle said.

"Let's face reality, we're actually in tough economic times and we can't throw money around".

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Cr Hoddle requested an amendment to "rework" the planning of the pound upgrade and then asked for it to be brought "back to council" for further debate, which was denied.

Instead, the majority of councillors endorsed a proposal to apply for a $2,214,161 grant from the federal government's Growing Regions Program Round 1. If successful, the council would then match the grant, with the money drawn from a variety of state and ratepayer funding, bringing the overall total to about $4.4m.

Cr Ann Luke said staff had worked "long and hard on the plans" and that if the council left it any longer, the overall cost to upgrade the pound would increase.

Director of planning and environmental services Wade Berryman said the pound only had 10 small pens and it was "not unusual for there to be more than one dog in a cage".

Mr Berryman said the 10 pens did not even comply with the state government guidelines that had not been updated for about 20 years; there were also no staff facilities, no isolation facilities in the event of a virus outbreak, no exercise yards, and no separate cattery.

The facility would also need a separate road entrance due to its proximity to a waste management site.

Cr Juliana McArthur said she wanted more time to consider the upgrade, as she did not have enough information about the upgrade to make an informed decision.

Cr Hoddle questioned whether the cost would amount to $100,000 per dog, with the query being taken "on notice" due to there being no statistical calculations available on-hand during the meeting.

Gunnedah mayor Jamie Chaffey said it was too soon to describe what a newly revised Gunnedah Impound Facility would look like without the financial contribution from the federal government.

He said if the request for federal funding was rejected, then the council would need to "rescope the whole project to fit in with the money that we do have".

The Gunnedah Impound Facility was initially going to be given a $1.5m upgrade, following the approval of a state government grant earlier this year. But after Gunnedah Council found out the actual cost for the pound's upgrade would be more than expected, they decided to apply for the additional federal grant.

If approved, work on the facility would not begin until 2024.

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