Councillor Geoff Dingle convened a a roundtable meeting at Medowie on Thursday morning. It involved 25 community members including volunteers who source plants from the nursery. 

“We want council to review the business model and come up with something more sustainable,” Cr Dingle said.

“Council’s had no one there to managed the transition in state-based disability funding to the federal [NDIS] model.

“We’ve just stood and watched while the NDIS came in.

“It’s not about competing [with disability service providers] it’s about providing a valuable community service and helping these people develop skills.”

Cr Dingle said the facility helped maintain a ready supply of affordable plants to help Port’s various Tidy Towns and Landcare committees carry out planting.

“Once upon a time councils had horticultural facilities and it Ngioka goes, that’s it,” he said.

“A major concern of our committees is that this is the only source of plants endemic to this area, there’s no commercial nurseries left, and if they’re sourced elsewhere they won’t be endemic.”

Cr Dingle said it was disingenuous to say the centre was costing rate payers money.

“If their argument comes down to money, council just spent $200,000 to clean up the acid sulfate soils at the [Salt Ash] pony club grounds,” he said.

Port Stephens Council will reconsider its financial support of horticultural services at the Ngioka Centre, Little Beach.

The introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme has seen the council become a competitor to disability service providers. Ngioka now costs the council $115,548 a year to operate. 

This has been matched by what the council said was a 30 per cent downturn in the number of clients the centre sees.

"The NDIS enables individuals with disabilities and those with carers to choose where they wish to go and what services they require. Clients are simply choosing other services that offer more than the Ngioka Centre is currently able to,” the council’s Community Services section manager Steve Bernasconi said.

 "Whilst providing community services is not just about the money, council needs to make sure that it is providing the right services in the best ways possible," Mr Bernasconi said.

The centre is a purpose built facility for people with disabilities and includes a native plant nursery that supplies volunteer greening committees across Port Stephens.

The council is poised to negotiate with the existing NDIS tenant at Ngioka Centre to take on the nursery services. It will need a yes vote from councillors at the June 27 meeting.

The council staff has proposed that it should:

1.    Negotiate with the existing NDIS registered tenant at Ngioka Centre to determine if they wish to extend their license to the whole facility to deliver NDIS services in place of council, including a native plant nursery;

2.    Conduct an expression of interest (EOI) process, should the current tenant not wish to extend their existing license of the facility, to engage a Disability Service Provider that is better positioned to support NDIS clients due to the NDIS financial model and with the capability to deliver the required suite of NDIS services from the Ngioka Centre including a native plant nursery.

3.    Cease the delivery of Council controlled services from the Ngioka Centre altogether thereby saving council the ratepayer subsidy of $115,548 per year; and

4.    Disband the Ngioka Centre Advisory Panel (a 355c committee).

Mr Bernasconi said it was important that the community was aware of the facts around what the report will recommend.

"There's some false information currently circulating within the community around why council is making this recommendation but the truth is that since the roll out of NDIS, the Ngioka Centre has seen more than a 30 per cent reduction in the centre's disability clients,” he said.

"[Our] Ngioka Centre service review has revealed that a more experienced and resourced NDIS disability services sector will offer the centre and people with disabilities in Port Stephens better access to more services.

"In short, the centre's clients will see an increase in services, and Port Stephens rate payers will see their rates being directed to other important community, recreation or asset services in the area."

Further, Mr Bernasconi said staff at the centre had been advised of these recommendations since February 2017, and supported through the process. 

Adopting the recommendations will trigger workplace change provisions of the Port Stephens Council Enterprise Agreement. 

"The proposal includes the native plant nursery and Landcare groups will be able to continue to purchase plants from the Centre once a new provider is secured," Mr Bernasconi said.

This isn’t the first time Port Stephens Council has reviewed the management of the Ngioka Horticultural Therapy Centre, which has operated since 1994.

The council considered its options in September 2013 after losses for five straight years.

On average it had lost $120,513 a year with a peak of $152,801 in 2011-2012.

A report to councillors sought to disband the Ngioka Horticultural Therapy Centre 355c committee, replacing it with a new business advisory panel.

The report, from the council's community services section manager Steve Bernasconi, said the centre had faced "significant challenges" to its viability since its inception including reductions in government funding and an increased focus on financially sustainable services from the council.

"A renewed focus on business development and strategic positioning within the disability services sector needs to occur in order for the centre to rise to these challenges and become a financially sustainable community service," Mr Bernasconi wrote.

Committee members at that time said the losses were a "gross exaggeration".