The ALGA board and annual general meetings were held in Tamworth on Wednesday prior to the start of the 2014 Congress.

The general meeting was the last chaired by Mayor Felicity-ann Lewis as she stepped down from the position of President after two years.

Mayor Lewis did not recontest the local government elections for the City of Marion.

Mayor of Joondalup Troy Pickard was elected President of ALGA and Cr Bill McArthur and Cr Greg Belz were elected Vice Presidents.

Mayor Pickard has served on the ALGA Board since 2007 and has been involved in local government since 2001.  He has been president of the Western Australian Local Government Association since 2010.

Cr McArthur is the President of Municipal Association of Victoria and is a councillor on Golden Plains Shire Council.

Cr Belz is a member of the Executive of the Local Government Association of Queensland and is a councillor on Rockhampton Regional Council.

Read the media release here.

The Inland Rail Project has moved from "if" the project will be built, to "how" the project will be built.

That was the message from the Chair of the Inland Rail Implementation Committee John Anderson to delegates at the 2014 National Local Roads and Transport Congress in Tamworth.

Mr Anderson said the Committee’s report to Government on developing the project is imminent and the benefit cost ratios will be available soon.

He said it was time to get the project built to join up capital cities and key freight hubs with an inland rail network to move Australia's rail freight system out of the 19th century.

Amalgamation, natural disaster recovery and major airports don't usually have much in common.

But how three councils have dealt with these issues was the focus of a panel sessions at the Congress on Thursday afternoon.

Tamworth Regional Council, Central Highlands Regional Council and West Torrens City Council representatives talked about the challenges each of them have faced and the home-grown solutions they adopted to deal with the infrastructure issues confronting their councils

Tamworth Mayor Col Murray said amalgamation meant dealing with cultural change, managing assets and addressing a backlog of maintenance.   Among the solutions, increasing the efficiency of plant and equipment and targeted investment in infrastructure for maximum regional benefit.

Central Highlands Mayor Peter Macguire said his council had faced multiple challenges, from the impact of natural disasters alongside the downtown in the resource industry.

While West Torrens General Manager Angelo Catinari told a very different story, how his council has worked to develop an integrated transport management plan at the local level to deal with the expansion of Adelaide airport.

Delegates (and those who were unable to make the Congress but don't want to miss out on the valuable information provided) will be able to access copies of speaker notes and presentations on the ALGA website.

ALGA will make the presentations available once they are provided to us by Congress presenters.

Keep an eye on the website and ALGA News for updates.

The location of next year's event will be announced in the closing session of the Congress this afternoon.

See ALGA News next week for the dates and location of this important event.

The COAG Ministerial Transport and Infrastructure Council agreed to a range of measures to improve heavy vehicle roadworthiness under the Heavy Vehicle National Law at a meeting in Launceston last Friday.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development Warren Truss said ministers agreed to improvements to the National Heavy Vehicle Accreditation Scheme, including improved auditing arrangements.

"These new arrangements are important to adopting a nationally consistent risk-based approach to heavy vehicle roadworthiness," he said.

"Auditors will have until July 2016 to transition to the new arrangements. The changes also mean truckies will no longer be able to choose their auditor.

"Ministers have also agreed to accelerate work on the development of a heavy vehicle compliance and surveillance strategy.

"Fast-tracking this will help to focus national efforts on activities that support long-term transport safety improvements.

"The changes are important for a national framework that targets heavy vehicles for roadworthiness inspections, as well as managing and clearing heavy vehicle defects.

"The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator is already making significant progress to improve access permit administration - particularly notable in boosting the number of pre-approved routes for heavy vehicles to over 500 gazetted and pre-approved routes since February 2014."

Mr Truss said Ministers also agreed to the National Transport Commission releasing a Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS) on heavy vehicle roadworthiness for public consultation.

The Regulatory Impact Statement will be available for public comment in early 2015 on the National Transport Commission website.

South Australian Councils will welcome 18 new Mayors - seven defeated a sitting Mayor, eight won from challenges where a sitting Mayor retired and three were elected unopposed where a sitting Mayor retired.

Thirty-three sitting Mayors were returned including 18 unopposed and 15 re-elected after successfully fighting off challenges.

The remaining 16 Councils will appoint their presiding member from with the Council body at the first meeting of the new Council and the 68th SA Council, Roxby Downs does not yet have an elected Council.

All Council elections results can be found here.

The Balonne Shire Council has claimed The Hard Won Victory Award in the Queensland-wide Planning Institute of Australia's (PIA) 2014 Awards for Planning Excellence.

At a ceremony held in Brisbane on Friday 7 November, Balonne Shire Council, CDM Smith, MWH and BMT WBM were honoured for their Flood Mitigation and Risk Management Project, which has responded to multiple recent, severe flood events within the Shire.

PIA State President (Qld) Kate Isles said the award judges were impressed by the speed and effectiveness of the council's response.

"Facing significant financial and resourcing constraints, Balonne Shire Council conducted an extensive and efficient community engagement program aimed at identifying and delivering the best results for the community as a whole," Ms Isles said.

"The project was delivered with the support of the local community, and aims to achieve its goals through structural mitigation and land use planning actions.

"The project is an outstanding example of a fit-for-purpose response program, which has already delivered tangible results for the community, including insurance premium reductions."

Four years since the concept was first conceived, Garage Sale Trail has blossomed into the biggest community and sustainability event in Australia.

Saturday 25 October 2014 resulted in unprecedented levels of public and private sector participation, with involvement from 133 councils, 7 state and territory government authorities, the endorsement of the federal government and a truly wonderful crew of ambassadors and spokespeople jumping on the bandwagon.

The response from the Australian public was once again humbling this year, demonstrating a growing appetite for the program with over 8,242 garage sales registered nationally, including 6,391 households, 91 schools, 735 community groups, 46 cultural institutions, 308 businesses, and 147 makers and creators. The big day saw over 350,000 people out hunting and gathering through 6million items listed for reuse (equating to 65,880 shopping trollies piled high) valued at $8.4million.

Further testament to the profile that the program is building for itself is acknowledgement from the pre-eminent environmental body the Banksia Foundation in voting Garage Sale Trail a Finalist in two categories of the 2014 Banksia Sustainability Awards.