COUNCILLORS might cool on the idea of bulk water giveaways for farmers at tonight’s meeting with rate relief and waste waivers preferred.
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Tamworth Regional Council will vote on a spate of measures proposed by general manager Paul Bennett to render some relief for landholders struggling with the drought.
Mr Bennett’s report included establishing free access to treated water for farmers at the Lockheed Street refill station and/or standpipe hydrants in each of the council’s towns and villages.
It comes after councillor Juanita Wilson requested a report on practical measures council could implement to help during the drought, last month.
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Cr Wilson said she is favour of rate relief and told The Leader she would move a recommendation at tonight’s meeting on Mr Bennett’s report.
“I’m really keen to push the deferral of rates, that already exists,” she said.
“What we don’t have is wiping away or waving interest rates.”
It’s not clear which form of water support, if any, council will endorse tonight with concerns about possible criticism from water carting businesses.
“We won’t be able to help everybody, but it’s trying to find mechanisms that won’t interfere with businesses such as water carriers,” Cr Wilson said.
She said she absolutely supported a move to drop landfill charges for waste products.
“I’ve had a couple of phone calls about the rubbish on places and it didn’t occur to me how expensive it was to take twine and bale to landfill,” she said.
“$40 a pop if you’ve got a lot of stuff coming in that’s quite expensive.”
Cr Wilson didn’t seem keen on a straight donation to the R U Aware We Care campaign from the water fund.
“I think that’s a little anonymous and it needs to be more direct help,” she said.
“The purpose of the report I put up was for direct help.
“That goes into a pool and one thing that really concerns me is there are people are out there they won’t go to the Salvation Army, they won’t go and ask for help.”
While he said it could be a great idea, Manilla-based councillor Jim Maxwell said giving out water might be a bridge too far.
“I think council is prepared to help wherever they can,” he said.
“It could be a little bit difficult, there’s a couple of town’s on fairly tight restrictions.
“You’ve got people paying for water then you’re giving it to someone else.”
Manilla is currently on level two restrictions, while Nundle is on level three.
He said state government would have to get on board to help council deliver local relief.
“It depends how much assistance council can get from government,” he said.
“It’s alright to waive rates, but if we’re not getting money coming in then we might not be fulfilling our duty under the local government act.
“We’ll just have to see what happens, it all hinges on how long this blasted drought stays.”
Mark Rodda hoped the raft of measures on the table wouldn’t lead to councillors being unable to agree on anything.
“There’s not a rock solid recommendation made and I’d hate to think they all fail because we can’t all agree on something,” he said.
He also had concerns about the the ability administer a bulk water giveaway fairly.
“As the tier of government closest to the people of Tamworth, I hope we can come up with an outcome of benefit to those communities and maybe some water,” he said.
“A lot of residents might be getting low in their tanks, they could draw bore water, but that’s not for consumption other than maybe for stock.”
But he believed council’s measures could have more of an effect than drought relief announced by other tiers of government.
“It could have more of an effect than the other tiers have promised like capped support, backdated,” he said.
“They may get that support if they fill out the paperwork properly, from the federal point of view, they may get the $12,000 if they’re means tested.
“I think that some of measures we could deliver could be a lot more beneficial to the people.”
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