IPART DRAFT DECISION TO INCREASE WATER RATES

“The Chamber is deeply disappointed at the draft decision by IPART to increase yearly water rates by $200”, said Peninsula Chamber President Matthew Wales.

“This comes at a time when Central Coast Council has attempting to extend the Special Variation to the general rates for a further seven years beyond the three years already approved by IPART”.

“Residents and business owners on the Peninsula are already coming to terms with between a 30-40% increase in rates and now Council is wanting to extract further dollars from the already empty pockets of the community”, said Matthew Wales.

“I don’t know what the current Council administration thinks, but ordinary small business owners and Peninsula residents don’t have endless piles of cash to bale out the mistakes of the former Central Coast Council”.

“The Chamber still believes that Council should consider selling down part or all of the Central Coast Water Authority and use the billions that could be raised to pay down its huge debts and set up a Future Fund to pay for the ongoing operations of the Council and the huge backlog of infrastructure works”, said Matthew Wales.

“Its up to Council how they do this and how they manoeuvre around the legislative and valuation issues”.

“Let’s not forget that the former Central Coast Council had racked up the largest local government debt in Australian history and they expect us to pay for it over the next ten years without any thing tangible in return other than the status quo”.

“This is unacceptable to the business community and the Chamber will be making submissions accordingly to IPART by the 14th April deadline”, said Matthew Wales.

Matthew

0415 634 232

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