At Monday night's council meeting, the councillors voted to place the draft budget and operational plan on public exhibition.

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During the debate Cr Figliomeni - who supported the exhibition of the draft budget - cautioned council about where it spent its money.

"I do believe there needs to be a restock taken of what we provide and how we provide it," Cr Figliomeni said.

"I think we've got to get away from ideology and address what the community wants."

He cited the recently completed cycleway along Military Road at Port Kembla as an example where money was not well spent.

"[That is] the biggest waste of money I can honestly say I have seen council spend," he said.

"Since it's been provided, even at six o'clock in the morning, I've been there and I've had cyclists actually on the road, not actually using the cycle path. The amount of times I've been there I have not seen anyone use it.

"I really wonder, have we really thought about where we spend our money?"

Cr Martin asked a question to council staff about the funding for that cycleway, and was told it was a 50-50 funding split with the state government.

She also said she and Cr Linda Campbell have used the Military Road path.

On the matter of the budget Cr David Brown saw an issue that raised a "red flag" in the March financial documents that stated there was $11 million in underspending from the capital budget partially due to supply shortages.

"It's a red flag because if material supplies are short it will soon follow the prices for materials will rise," Cr Brown said.

"And we are going to find significant increases in areas we might not have expected. It will see us doing less new buildings, less maintenance If our supply of material costs us more."

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