The shire will become the centre’s new owner and transfer its staff to local government jobs at the new shire-owned site.

Shire CEO Suzie Haslehurst said $107,000 a year in federal money paid to the centre’s previous volunteer management to run the centre would be transferred to the shire.

Federal money supported than 100 community resource centres in WA, of which 14 were run by local government councils.

Councillors were told that the TCRC’s August closure had placed significant extra demand on shire staff and resources at the Toodyay Public library.

The library had only one public computer and could not meet increased local demand for public internet access and other services.

The closure meant also that after-school activities were no longer available for younger people living in the shire.

Councillors agreed to cover the centre’s current financial liabilities up to a total of $47,500 and amend the new shire budget in a mid-year review.

A proposed new TCRC business model would be presented to the November council meeting.

Former TCRC manager Nicole Coleman has started a new role as voluntary secretary at the Toodyay Club, which re-opened its doors last month with a series of events after closing in July due to ongoing financial losses.

The Club has re-opened with no paid staff, only volunteers.

 

The distraught owner was scratched and bitten on her hand and arm as she tried to fend off the bigger dogs.

Shocked bystanders were also injured when they tried to help.

A passing Shire of Toodyay ranger – who was also reportedly bitten – was able to rescue the injured dog from further harm.

It was rushed to Heartlands Vet Hospital in Stirling Terrace, underwent emergency surgery (pictured right) and was recovering at the end of last month.

The two attacking dogs were captured at the scene of the attack and impounded.

Shire security camera footage showed them running unrestrained (pictured top right) across Piesse Street towards the IGA store.

Toodyay Shire CEO Suzie Haslehurst said the two attacking dogs had separate owners and were unregistered.

They had escaped from a property where they had been confined and were not on leads when the attack occurred.

The shire was in the process of getting the two animals declared dangerous and issuing both owners with fines.

The owner of the mauled dog and people who were bitten and scratched while trying to rescue it received minor injuries.

The owners of the impounded dogs would each be fined $400, and $200 per dog for allowing them to roam free.

They would also each be required to pay an annual $50 fee to register a dangerous dog, and the additional cost of fitting the two dogs with clearly marked dangerous dog collars and muzzles (pictured left).

Ms Haslehurst said dogs that had been declared dangerous were required to be confined to a “stringent confinement area with sufficient signage”.

Dangerous dogs outside a confinement area were required to be muzzled at all times.

Each of the three practitioners sees up to 40 patients a day, and hundreds every week.
The medical centre also provides physiotherapy services to up to 20 patients a week, and dozens of Clinipath Pathology blood and other tests for illnesses such as cancer and other infections.

The not-for-profit business employs one nurse and two reception staff who will get an option to move to the network’s ‘Super Clinic’ in Northam by the end of November.

Toodyay’s GP service has operated rent-free for the past 10 years at the Alma Beard Medical Centre in Stirling Terrace, which is owned by Toodyay ratepayers.

The shire first realised last May that the centre might close when the Network declined to sign a contract for a new lease after operating on a month-by-month basis when a previous lease expired in 2017.

There has been a high turnover of Toodyay doctors in recent years, with some reportedly leaving after disputes with management.

Wheatbelt Health Network CEO Catherine Milliner – who took over in August last year – said running the centre “has become even harder as a result of reducing incentives for doctors to work in regional areas and the increased cost of living and wages with no corresponding increase in the Medicare rebate”.

The Federal Government pays a rebate to subsidise the cost of GP services, some of which are bulk-billed at no cost to patients and others for which doctors charge a ‘gap fee’ to offset unreimbursed costs.

The Federal Government increased its Medicare rebate in July by 65c to $39.75 for a standard GP consultation after freezing the rebate for six of the previous nine years.

Australia’s Royal College of GPs said the rebate should be $80 to keep pace with inflation and warned that such a small increase would further accelerate the loss of doctors from rural and regional Australia.

Toodyay Shire President Rosemary Madacsi, who is the WA Local Government Association’s Avon Zone representative, said she would raise Toodyay’s doctor crisis at the association’s next State Council meeting in Mandurah on September 8-9.

The shire was working on several fronts to find an alternative doctor for Toodyay but the responsibility belonged to State and Federal Government, not local government, she said.

Local State Labor MP Darren West agreed, saying Toodyay had a big enough population to sustain a local doctor service but he had a “fundamental issue” with local government being required to provide it.

It was costing shires like Goomalling hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

“It’s a Federal Government responsibility to provide doctors and the State’s responsibility to provide services,” he said.

Doctors were in short supply everywhere, and he would talk to the State Government’s WA Country Health Service and the shire about what could be done.

Local MP and WA Nationals Deputy Leader Shane Love said he would raise the issue with Federal Nationals Leader David Littleproud, Senate Leader Bridget McKenzie and other colleagues at this month’s WA Nationals State Conference.

He said it was untenable not to have a doctor in Toodyay, particularly with so many older residents needing access to a local GP and other medical services.

Other towns such as Dongara, Dalwallinu, Bindoon, Gingin and Three Springs all had doctors.

“This needs to be raised at a higher level of government but at the moment it’s been left to the shire,” Mr Love said.

Toodyay pharmacy co-owner Philip Carr said any GP closure in Toodyay would affect business but the pharmacy would stay open.

“Patients who see a GP in Northam still need to get their prescriptions filled, and many have repeat prescriptions,” he said.

Clinipath Pathology did not respond to Herald calls for comment.

The council voted 6-0 (Shire President Rosemary Madacsi and Cr McKeown absent) to adopt the increases after attending four months of budget workshops.

However, the shire was still waiting at the end of last month for State Government approval to strike a new mining rate to raise $200,000 to repair local roads damaged by mining trucks and other heavy equipment.

If the new rate is rejected, the shire says it will examine other ways to pay the shortfall.
The shire budget follows a 7.6 per cent increase in the national consumer price index to March, three bank mortgage rate increases since May and a Federal Government warning that inflation is likely to worsen.

These and other pressures – including the COVID-19 pandemic – have caused local house prices to soar and created a rental property shortage which has hit low-income Toodyay families with higher rents.

New shire fees include a 150 per cent increase from $200 to $500 for the Toodyay Theatre Group to use the shire-owned Memorial Hall – reportedly the group’s first rent increase for several years.

The Toodyay Football Club will pay 13 per cent more to use the Showground sports oval and pavilion with the fee rising from $750 to $847 a year, and the Toodyay Tennis Club will pay four per cent more, from $2750 to $3000 a year, to use new courts at the Toodyay Recreation Centre.

Tennis club use of shire-owned premises in Fiennes Street for which it pays a peppercorn rent expires next February.

The council has set a small operating surplus of $10,000 in its $14.4 million shire budget, with about half raised from rates and the rest from grants and other income.

The council budgeted for a similar small operating surplus last year and has not run an operating budget deficit since 2017-18.

As reported two months ago, minimum rates will remain the same as last year at $1351 per property, and the overall rates take will increase by 2.5 per cent, as set by the shire’s 10-year long term financial plan.

However, shire wages will increase 15 per cent to $4.3 million, which Shire CEO Suzie Haslehurst said was due to staff award pay rises and the addition of a part-time communications officer and a depot trainee.

She said outside workers were paid under a separate enterprise bargaining agreement which was currently under review.

Toodyay’s wage costs were comparable with other similar shires at about 55-60 per cent of total rates revenue, with some other shires higher at about 70 per cent, Ms Haslehurst said.

Councillor sitting fees and allowances will rise by 17.4 per cent overall.

The new rate for a shire president is $4600 a month, the deputy gets $1940 and seven other councillors get $1270 each.

The pay rises are 15 per cent less than the top rate for shires the size of Toodyay and “acknowledges the significant commitment and voluntary service of elected members within their communities”, the shire said.

Land rates will be payable in full on October 12, with an option to spread payments across four quarterly instalments.