GRIFFITH BUSINESSES LOOK FOR SAVINGS IN RELOCATION

16 Feburary 2004

Major cost savings are behind a plan by Griffith City Council, Murrumbidgee Irrigation and Country Energy to look into sharing resources. The three organisations will conduct a feasibility study looking at the implications of relocating to a joint facility outside Griffith's CBD.

Griffith Mayor Mike Neville stressed the investigations are preliminary, and no decisions would be made until all three organisations have had an opportunity to fully consider the proposal.

“It is important the proposal, if it goes ahead, provides real advantages for the organisations involved and the residents of Griffith. We expect to realise savings through common infrastructure development and by sharing fixed resources," he said.

"Our services are similar in many ways. Each of us provide customer service facilities and administration support as well as undertaking considerable plant and construction related activities,” Cr Neville said.

“Sharing facilities such as training rooms, a library, creche or canteen not only saves on development and maintenance costs, but may allow access to services none of us could reasonably afford to provide on our own.”

Cr Neville said given Griffith's continued growth and the growth of council itself, the proposal may address the future lack of space at the current Council Chambers site.

Last year Murrumbidgee Irrigation negotiated the sale of their three commercial sites in Griffith.

“We are very excited by the possibilities of this joint venture,” said Geoff Hipkins, Chief Executive of Murrumbidgee Irrigation. “With the sale of our buildings we believe it is time to start preliminary investigations into an alternate site.

"We had two objectives in mind when we negotiated the sale of the buildings. The first was to realise the commercial value of our real estate on behalf of our shareholders and the second was to combine our Griffith sites to a single location. We completed a similar process in Leeton some 10 years ago and have been rewarded by savings in many areas.”

“Bringing three businesses onto a single site makes sense," Mr Hipkins said. "We are keenly awaiting the results of the feasibility study to determine whether the project has merit."

Country Energy’s regional general manager, south western, Hany Hanna said: “Country Energy has undertaken considerable changes during the past couple of years, which we believe has resulted in positive outcomes for our customers. We are continually exploring ways to improve our service and enhance operating efficiency.

"If sharing a site with Griffith City Council and Murrumbidgee Irrigation will meet these key objectives, we are very interested in gathering more information.

"The results of the feasibility study will offer us an insight into whether a joint venture of this kind will offer better facilities for employees and improved customer service all while creating operating efficiencies,” Mr Hanna said.