THE Tamworth Regional Council would be $3.369 million a year worse off if its water and sewerage operations were removed as a result of the current State Government inquiry.
Water Enterprise director Bruce Logan, writing in TRC’s submission to Secure and Sustainable Urban Water Supply and Sewerage Services for Non-Metropolitan NSW, said ratepayers could find themselves being charged more for an inferior service if council lost its water and sewerage functions.
The TRC submission argues strongly for the status quo – even though the State Government has already announced the status quo is not an option.
General manager Glenn Inglis told a recent council meeting Tamworth was the exception to the rule.
He said the recent amalgamation of five councils to set up the TRC had already delivered the efficiency gains and service quality benefits the State Government said it was looking for.
Economies of scale and an enlarged rate base had made it possible to address issues that had been plaguing the residents of towns such as
Bendemeer and Nundle for decades.
Any State Government decision to strip the water and sewerage function from the TRC would have a dramatic effect on how the council operated, and, given Mr Inglis said TRC was already delivering excellent performance against existing service delivery benchmarks, any upside from such a change would be hard to find.
“The TRC experience is that the general purpose regional council model of providing water and sewerage services has proved to be very cost effective,” Mr Logan wrote in council’s submission.
He highlighted economies of scale, resource sharing within the council, the fact there was no duplication of administrative structures and the ability to offer ratepayers “one stop shops” for water, sewerage and general council issues. The State would, in effect, be splitting one efficient organisation up into two less efficient ones ostensibly to achieve service delivery targets that were already being met.
Mr Logan forshadowed the possibility that a dedicated water and sewerage organisation may find it very difficult to deliver the same service – especially if it was required to do so at the same cost.
It was also likely that the level of council services currently provided in outlying towns and villages would also suffer.
“The cost of providing services to the local community would be increased as the overheads currently collectively paid for by the general, watrer and sewer funds would have to be paid for exclusively by the general fund,” Mr Logan wrote.
“TRC would still need to operate customer service centres and works depots in Tamworth, Manilla, Barraba and Nundle.
“The viability of the village services teams would be compromised by taking away the water and sewerage functions from council.
“At present there is sufficient work... for the... teams to remain gainfully employed. Reducing the services... is contrary to council – and the government’s – objective of revitalising small centres in regional NSW.”
The council submission concluded it would be best if the TRC continued to provide water supply and sewerage services in the Tamworth region.
“This provides a streamlined, seamless and cost effective method for providing all services... it also allows local ownership and control of the water and sewerage assets.”
Email a friend