Sunday 30 March 2008

Something free from Council

One of the last gracious acts of former Mayor Kevin Byrne, was to provide residents with a free call 1800 number.

The number is 1800 070 444

Customer service and cashiers will be able to provide first line contact with the community via the new number. Mobiles can also call this number.

The Mossman office will remain a key centre for the former Douglas Shire residents and will offer a full range of services.

Byrne said earlier in the month that the 1800 number had been established to enable people in the farthermost corners of the new Regional Council area to call the Cairns administration centre without incurring toll charges.

Both Douglas Shire and the former Cairns Council’s unexpended budgets will be analysed and consolidated during April. Financial statements will be prepared and presented to the new Council in May. It is expected that Councillors' workshops for the 2008-09 Budget will be held during April and May and interim annual reports would be prepared by September.

Byrne said that the merger process had presented significant challenges for the transition committee and staff.

“However, the sky will not fall in when both offices re-open for business [under the new Council]despite what some doomsayers may have predicted,” said Kevin Byrne said.

Byrne said that as chair of the transition committee he was proud of the efforts they had put in to ensuring the continuation of service delivery occurs right throughout the new Council area.

“I have nothing but admiration for the way staff from both councils have gone about the job behind the scenes. What they have achieved is highly commendable,” Byrne said last month.

“Soon the people of Douglas can put the dark days behind them and start to enjoy the same high levels of good governance the people of greater Cairns have enjoyed for eight years,” he said.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another "free" thing Cairns Regional Council should give every household is a placard;
"NO JUNK MAIL".
It may encourage more people to act against this insane waste of paper. The decrease in refuse collected would more than offset the cost.

Anonymous said...

where the hell did that comment come from.

Anonymous said...

Erm ... me, I thought it was a good comment. Is there a problem?

Anonymous said...

it's just.....completely irrelevant and unrelated. i mean, of all the things to write an off-the-cuff 40 ward argument for...why that?

I suppose what I'm trying to understand is the process of thought of how a simple notice about a CRC freecall number triggered you to write about junk mail and waste collection, and choosing a comment response on a blog as the forum for your message?

it's just...odd