Cr Stuart McKellar put forward a motion with notice in regards to the potential of Council purchasing a traffic counter, however, with information provided the General Manager Max Kershaw suggested a different recommendation be put forward.

Cr McKellar had said he had spoken to the Council's engineering department and explained that the devices would be a huge asset to the department and the Council as a whole.

"After discussion with the engineering department the ability to count traffic on various roads would be a real advantage to them," Cr McKellar said.

"They could work out which roads need repairing more than others due to traffic load. I think that would greatly assist their operation."

Cr Jason Kenah then asked for clarification as there appeared to already be a number of the devices owned and in use by Council.

"That was a bit unclear, so the Council currently own six of these units?"

Mr Kershaw then clarified that there are already traffic counters that Council has in its possession with all six of the devices deployed around the Council area.

"Thank you Mr Mayor, I can answer that particular question and I thank Councillor for the notes of motion because it's important that you understand the value of these traffic counters," Mr Kershaw said.

"They're an extremely valuable asset and measuring for Council to determine road usage patterns covering issues such as the vehicle type, the speed at the time and a few other matters such as weight and what have you.

"There are currently six of within Council's operation and they are all fully deployed at the moment."

Mr Kershaw then went on to explain how the data collected is useful to Council and how the information they provide should be presented to the Councillors to help in making decisions.

"They are very informative in assisting Council in where to allocate its scarce road maintenance funds as well as provide information for other road information uses," he said.

"I commend the Council to actually recommend that the information about these traffic counters come to Council on a quarterly basis as part of your assessment of road priorities.

"They are an important part of actually allocating where these scarce resources could go."

Mr Kershaw recommended that the data from the traffic counters be presented to Council every few months.

"If I may suggest to Council may wish to consider that it recommended that Council receive and note the information on Council's existing suite of traffic counters and that a quarterly report on data emanating from these traffic counters be reported to Council for review," Mr Kershaw said.

"They will provide that sort of information back to Council in a quarterly review and then you can actually go through and make assessments about particular roads about getting information."

Cr McKellar said he would be happy to change his recommendation to that which Mr Kershaw had suggested and moved the new recommendation, Cr Philip Diprose seconded the motion.

Cr Best wanted to seek further clarification on what would be voted on.

"I'd just like to ask a couple of questions. So, in light of that are we actually talking about purchasing more traffic counters?" Cr Best asked.

"We have six at the moment and I think that's probably through the engineer, I think that's probably adequate at the moment. We've got six around and they are fully deployed and they are rotated around pretty regularly. So, I think we have enough on hand at the moment," Mr Kershaw clarified.

Cr McKellar apologised for the confusion.

"Sorry, I misunderstood, I thought that you would be shorter," Cr McKellar said.

Just prior to the vote Mr Kershaw reiterated the new recommendation.

"The recommendation that has been moved and seconded is that Council has received and note the information on Council's existing suite of traffic counters and that a quarterly report on data emanating from these traffic counters be reported to Council for review," he said.

The motion was then put to a vote and carried unanimously.