Conargo Shire Council's asset management plans – created from scratch in 2011 with the help of IPWEA's NAMS.PLUS – are still going strong.
In 2011, 42 councils across NSW with populations under 10,000 participated in an audit using the IPWEA NAMS.PLUS Maturity Model. Among them was Conargo Shire Council, in the state’s south-west Riverina region. At the time, Conargo was found to be below core, with no asset management plans in place. (See "It's never too late to start", PWPro Jan-Feb 2013)
Within a year, thanks to the adoption of IPWEA’s NAMS.PLUS tools and with the support and assistance of Jeff Roorda & Associates, the council had developed a 10-year financial and asset management plan from scratch.
Two years on, Conargo remains an enthusiastic adopter and advocate of the tool, upgrading to NAMS.PLUS2 when it was launched in 2012.
“We didn’t have any asset plans prior to implementing NAMS.PLUS, so the council embraced it whole-heartedly,” says David Kerslake, Conargo Shire Council Director of Engineering.
“In fact, they embraced it to the extent that the asset committee comprised the whole of council,” he adds. “As far as a staff member trying to implement it, it was very easy because of that support.”
NAMS.PLUS2 has enabled Conargo Shire to budget based on its asset management plans, Kerslake says. “We were probably doing pretty well before that, but this confirms that what we were doing was on the right track. So now for asset management plans saying we need a million dollars worth of road reseals, that’s what goes in the budget.”
Based on his experience using the tool, Kerlake offers the following advice to other councils considering implementing NAMS.PLUS2:
“Unless they have the very specific expertise in council for providing asset management plans, then this tool is a really valuable step-by-step guide of putting that in place,” he says. “And even if you have the expertise, it just makes it even easier to do.”