Tuesday night’s meeting was told State Water has lodged a submission with a pricing review inquiry which would double what the city has to pay for water.

There is no way, given the rate pegging legislation that is in place and the very inefficient way in which the NSW Government handles the allocation of funds to councils, such a price spike could be absorbed.

The change, which is mooted for July 1, 2010, would hit every Tamworth Regional Council ratepayer in the hip pocket – and hard.

The irony is that the State Government is charging Tamworth people for water that wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for a very heavy community investment in infrastructure made over many decades.

The bulk of the water used by Tamworth homes and industry comes from Chaffey and Dungowan dams.

Neither would exist if it were not for the foresight – and investment – of previous councils.

We are told the argument for jacking up the price of high-security water is that under the current regime, the State Government has not been receiving a “commercial return” on its local water assets.

One of the reasons for that is that in recent years, partly as a result of good planning and partly as a result of the drought, TRC has done an excellent job in encouraging the local community to conserve water and to reduce

consumption. We are, in effect, being penalised for doing everything we have been urged to do.

Councillor Ray Tait may be speaking for a lot of people when he suggests the time has come to slap the NSW Government around a bit on this issue.

It may well be the only language they understand.