Tamworth Regional Council approves $20,000 for annual greening and cooling of the city

After $20,000 was allocated to purchase trees, tree guards, stakes, fabric mats, fertiliser tablets and machinery hire, as part of Tamworth council's greening strategy, councillor Bede Burke called for more "scrutiny" to be paid to their expenditure.

He said he was "extremely supportive" of the initiative to keep Tamworth, clean, green and cool, but called for urgent attention to the budgetary process.

The payment comes after council handed out $25,000 to the Aunty Yvonne Kent commemorative project and $20,000 to host the West Tigers and Cronulla Sharks in Tamworth, since July.

"I just want to make sure our budgetary process is solid," Cr Burke said.

"And we're not finding that we've got creepage. And then all of a sudden we get to the end of the year and say 'Wow, we've approved another significant amount of expenditure for next year and ongoing'."

The tree and commemorative project and NRL funding had all come before council as individual items, that had not gone through a formal budget process.

"I think we need to have a lot more scrutiny and a lot more understanding about how we're going to spend our money at short notice and on a needs basis," Cr Burke said.

At a meeting on Tuesday, council resolved to make the $20,000 for the tree planting an annual payment, one that would be included in the budget moving forward.

But there's no guarantee that money will be granted again into the future, mayor Russell Webb said.

"It will go into the budget next year and will be considered into the future, is it a priority or isn't it," he said.

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"This gives the staff some ideas about what council is thinking about and what they want included in future budgets.

"Whether it is left in or taken out will depend on the appetite of the councillors of the day."

Councillors Helen Tickle, Brooke Southwell and Marc Sutherland said they were pleased to see the strategy included in the budget moving forward.

Cr Sutherland said he felt it was critical to put money behind the project.

"I take Cr Burke's comments on board about making sure we're financially aware and not taking any adverse risk," he said.

"But having a greening strategy is important and we need to put a budget to that."

As chair of the Urban Street Tree Management Plan Advisory Group, Cr Tickle welcomed the funding but said council could not achieve the "greening and cooling" of the city "on their own" and called for the community to get involved.

Cr Southwell said she was excited to see the "legacy" and "benefits" the project would leave.

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