Ararat Rural City Council, 27 October 2026
Checked 9 Nov 2026
Decisions
Ararat Rural City adopts the Council Expense and Support Policy The policy links vehicle travel reimbursements to the Victorian determination and sets remote travel allowances at $50.60 for eligible trips over 50km to 100km, and $101.20 over 100km. The annual cap is $6,325 per councillor.
Other notable items
Community sessions across eight towns drew 55 attendees, who raised 86 issues; 83 had been resolved or referred for action.
Demolition and site clean-up continue at the former Prestige Mill site; enabling infrastructure construction is expected to start in late 2026.
Council reports 19.1% of rates raised had been collected by 30 September 2026, compared with 25.6% at the same time last year.
Tech & Innovation Notes
Council plans a Smart Cities Strategy to optimise services and improve cost efficiency.
Council is developing digital and permit application forms, with new online forms expected from November 2026.
Council is scoping and prioritising cybersecurity improvements.
286 pages of minutes decisions from p.
223
Written by a language model from the official minutes, then checked point by point: 6 points confirmed, 1 corrected, 4 removed. Check the minutes before you quote them.
What was corrected
Ararat Rural City adopts the Council Expense and Support Policy [Carried] The policy links vehicle travel reimbursements to the Victorian determination and sets remote travel allowances at $50.60 for eligible trips over 50km to 100km, and $101.20 over 100km. The annual cap is $6,325 per councillor. The summary first said “Ararat Rural City adopts new councillor travel allowance rules [Carried] The policy links vehicle travel reimbursements to the Victorian determination and sets remote travel allowances at $50.60 for eligible trips over 50km to 100km, and $101.20 over 100km. The annual cap is $6,325 per councillor.”.
What was removed
$20,628 in grants awarded to eight Ararat Rural City groups
Pitch Music Festival towaway zones planned for surrounding roads
$15.8m capital works program covers roads, bridges and community facilities
Ararat’s $7.3m former Prestige Mill project targets housing-enabling works
A removed point was not shown to be wrong. Its wording couldn’t be matched to the text taken from the minutes PDF, which happens most often with scanned pages.
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