Greater Hume Shire Council (GHS) has moved to waive charges worth more than $200,000 at the recent council meeting.
The developer charges relating to the Culcairn and Holbrook hospital upgrades worth $212,000 were waived.
GHS general manager Steve Pinnuck said council waived the fee to allow the project to go ahead faster.
“Eighteen million dollar developments in Greater Hume don’t come along everyday,” Mr Pinnuck said.
“The community will benefit from this development.”
GHS mayor Heather Wilton acknowledged it was a significant amount of money but commented that it was not uncommon for councils to waive developer contributions on essential community facilities such as public hospitals, police stations and fire stations.
She said that it was a vote of confidence in the shire and particularly in the communities of Culcairn and Holbrook that the state government was making such significant investments at both hospitals.
The Holbrook and Culcairn hospitals are both being upgraded to a Multi-Purpose Service (MPS).
MPS offer a ‘one stop shop’ for inpatient, residential aged care and community health services in rural and remote communities across NSW.
Holbrook was awarded $3.5 million while Culcairn was awarded $30 million in January last year.
Development applications for both upgrades have been submitted to council.
The Holbrook upgrade will be assessed in house while the Culcairn application will be asses by the Southern Joint Regional Planning Panel due to the cost.
The Culcairn upgrade will see a complete rebuild of the hospital and a major upgrade of the Kiltearn House Aged Care residential.
The hospital was first built in 1910 and has been added onto with some doorways even too small to fit beds through.
An additional six residential aged care beds and two additional acute beds will be added in the upgrade along with enhanced community health facilities and staff accommodation.
The $3.5 million upgrade at Holbrook will provide six new residential aged care rooms and associated sitting areas.
The planning process for both upgrades took months with staff and community consulted throughout the process.
