By Councillor Ellsmore
It is resolved that:
(A)
Council
note:
(i)
Council
included in the 2022/23 and 2023/24 budgets that venue hire be waived, and public
liability insurance coverage be provided for free, for local community groups.
This provided free use of community halls, meeting rooms and other community
spaces for not-for-profit groups, where a group resides in or provides services
largely to communities in the City of Sydney;
(ii)
the fee
waiver aims to encourage use of Council’s community spaces by community groups
together when the costs would otherwise have been prohibitive;
(iii)
there
have been some promotions of the fee waiver including in some of the City’s
newsletters. The City of Sydney’s website has recently been updated to include
some information about the fee waiver;
(iv)
however,
the Office of Deputy Lord Mayor has received numerous reports that the fee
waiver, along with the coverage of public liability insurance, is not being
accessed by some groups, including because:
(a)
groups
are not advised that the fee waiver is available when liaising with City staff
over the phone or via email and asking about community venue hire costs; and
(b)
the
website pages for the community centres and spaces hire do not include
information about the fee waiver in the ‘Cost to Hire’ section – that is, the
free option is not noted in the section where the fees are listed. The existing
format of the pages suggests that a 50 per cent discount (but not a fee waiver)
only is available to community groups; and
(B)
the
Chief Executive Officer be requested to:
(i)
add the
information about the fee waiver to all parts of the City’s website where the
50 per cent discount for community groups is listed;
(ii)
update
community venue hire forms to note an option for a fee waiver for local
community groups as per the Council decision, including online forms;
(iii)
review
current procedures and training for staff tasked with assisting with community
bookings, to ensure they are informing groups of the fee waiver; and
(iv)
report
back to Council.
Note – at the meeting of Council, the content
of the original Notice of Motion was varied by Councillor Ellsmore.
Subsequently it was –
Moved by Councillor Ellsmore, seconded by
Councillor Scott –
It is resolved that Council note:
(A) Council included in the 2022/23 and 2023/24
budgets that venue hire be waived, and public liability insurance coverage be
provided for free, for local community groups. This provided free use of
community halls, meeting rooms and other community spaces for not-for-profit
groups, where a group resides in or provides services largely to communities in
the City of Sydney;
(B)
the fee
waiver aims to encourage use of Council’s community spaces by community groups
as part of the recovery from Covid-19;
(C)
however,
the Office of Deputy Lord Mayor has received numerous reports that the fee
waiver, along with the coverage of public liability insurance, is not being
accessed by some groups, including because:
(i)
groups
are not advised that the fee waiver is available when liaising with City staff
over the phone or via email and asking about community venue hire costs; and
(ii)
the
website pages for the community centres and spaces hire do not include information
about the fee waiver in the ‘Cost to Hire’ section – that is, the free option
is not noted in the section where the fees are listed. The existing format of
the pages suggests that a 50 per cent discount (but not a fee waiver) only is
available to community groups;
(C)
the
City has promoted the fee waiver opportunity through City of Sydney eNews
(5,941 subscribers), posters displayed in libraries and community centres, and
multiple articles in community newsletters (7,043 subscribers) since October 2022;
(D)
information
about the fee waiver is included in the online booking form and has been
available on the City’s website since it was introduced - it is listed on every
single page about community venues for hire directly under the cost to hire
section of the webpage; and
(E)
City of
Sydney staff will continue to promote the fee waiver to eligible organisations,
including in response to email and phone enquiries, and regularly review and
update relevant information as required to ensure that it is easy to find.
Carried
unanimously.
X086659