Recycling costs will increase by $25 per property, and overall waste costs will rise by $40, on average. 

A swathe of new tip fees have been introduced for tyres, including forklifts, trucks and tractors, while disposal of car bodies have skyrocketed 861 per cent – from $26 to $250. 

Bendigo council's resource recovery and education manager Brooke Pearce said the tyre fees were introduced following a change in fee structure from the company that charges council to recycle them, while car bodies were infrequently taken to landfill.

Read more: Bendigo council budget 2017-18

Approximately $33.5 million of a $40.5 million capital works program will go toward maintaining infrastructure – some of which the council doesn’t own.

Money spent on capital works has dropped significantly over the past three years, which mayor Margaret O’Rourke said was due to the completion of major projects like the Bendigo stadium, Bendigo airport redevelopment and the Gurri Wanyarra Wellbeing Centre, which is due to open in August. 

Of the council’s $183.1 million operating budget, $23.6m will be spent on waste, $12.4m on parks, $12.7m on community wellbeing and $12.6 million on works including footpaths and road maintenance.

Rates will increase by 2.25 per cent in line with the rate cap set by the state government, and, when coupled with user fees and charges, will account for 60 per cent of the council’s budget revenue of $193.9 million.

Other significant charge increases come in the aged care and disability sector, with an evening and main meal in general home care jumping around 45 per cent, and soup up 66 per cent.

Sporting facilities will be upgraded in the budget, with $2.3 million allocated for the Garden Gully Hockey Pavilion, and $685,000 for the installation of female change rooms at the QEO. 

New unisex change rooms adjacent to the netball courts were announced in January, and are expected to be ready for the 2019 season.

The $845,000 jointly-funded project will include two change rooms, unisex toilets and showers, a first aid and baby change facility and an umpires room. 

Elsewhere, the Ironbark Gully trail from Nolan to Arnold Street will get $500,000, and a further $50,000 will be put toward a central business district pop up park, which mayor Margaret O’Rourke said will be placed in Hargreaves Mall to create vibrancy and colour.

“We know activating the CBD works so we’re committing to more activities,” she said.

Roads listed for reconstruction include; Maiden Gully Road from the Calder Highway to Patas Road, including bike lanes and intersection treatment at Durstons Road, Upper California Gully Road from Victoria Street to number 154 and an 800 metre section of Elmore Mitiamo Road, east of Doyles Lane.

The council’s director of corporate performance Kerryn Ellis said the major factor driving increased recycling costs was China’s decision to ban imports of Australian paper and plastic waste from January 1. 

The decision directly affected Mount Alexander and Macedon Ranges Shires, as their contractor was implicated, but indirectly impacted most Victorian councils.

“We’ve been lucky in the past in Victoria in that we’ve been able to sell recyclables which enabled us to subsidise the cost of recycling. With the recent changes with the Chinese market that’s no longer the case,” she said.

The changes would be “significant for the community”, Ms Ellis suggested.

Budgeted recycling costs have increase by $1.3 million due to the Chinese policy shift.

Read more: Waste charges skyrocket for Macedon Ranges shire 

On the reduction in capital works budget, Ms Ellis said the allocation has returned to “what would be considered a normal year”. 

Overseeing 1.6 billion dollars worth of community assets and providing money for community or infrastructure projects was a difficult balancing act, Ms Ellis said.

“Managing community expectation is always a challenge. We can all understand there’s always something new we would like to see the council doing for us, however we are sustaining a very high level of service delivery,” she said.

For example, of the operating budget, council will ‘spend’ $38 million on depreciation, or the decline in value of its assets in 2018-19. 

Overall the council was in a “very sustainable position”, Ms Ellis said.

Meanwhile, the council will spend $64 million on staff expenditure. 

The council expects to save $600,000 in the coming financial year as a result of a restructure last year.

The draft budget is open for public submissions until May 18.