Mayor Milton Evans said that the City received $1,568,047 in the 2008/09 budget from the funding’s first round.

“The money has been prioritised by Council resolution and used on a variety of local projects including pathways, toilet blocks sporting grounds and daycare facilities,” Mr Evans said.

“Each project is either delivered or nearing completion with many more projects in the near future to be prioritised by Council.”

Mr Evans said he looked for further assistance to help the City deliver ongoing improvements to the community.

“Staff are working through options to discuss with Council using capital works and incorporating the ideas from our communities from the Working Together initiative,” he said.

“Many new and urgently required services and infrastructure will be announced in the coming months once Council has met and made its decisions.”

The City will be working in partnership with the Shire of Katanning to discuss further allocations of approximately $750,000 Royalties’ funding.

“Both Councils have further work to agree on the processes we use to allocate the funding and I am certain from preliminary discussions that we all have a common goal in supporting the growth of our region,” Mr Evans said

“The Royalties for Regions is bringing much needed money into our City and we have worked with a number of partners to make sure that our funding is used.

“I know some other local governments have commented negatively but I am very supportive of the initiative and would like to see Albany’s allocation increased if others cannot spend their allocations.”

Mr Evans said the City would seek urgent discussions with the Great Southern Development Commission and other partners to highlight a long list of work-ready projects which required funding.

The full list of projects from the first round of funding included:

l Paths: Emu Point/Cunningham $115,000, Le Grande $190,300, South Coast Hwy 160,000, Ulster Rd $162,000, North Rd $34,400, Brunswick $96,800, Turner/Dunn $121,000, La Perouse $57,200.

l Toilets: Cape Riche $60,000, Little Grove – Mills Park $65,000, Surfers Beach $54,000, Cheynes Beach $48,000.

l Sports: North Road soccer ground $246,000.

l Others: Emu Point enhancement $133,347, Day Care Centre improvements $25,000.