Statement about reticulated water charges in Singleton/Madora area
30/5/96 "There have been too many public statements made falsely declaring or implying that the Government pays to reticulate water to people's properties and therefore that the residents of Singleton, Golden Bay and Madora are being harshly treated," Water Resources Minister Roger Nicholls said.
30/5/96
"There have been too many public statements made falsely declaring or implying that the Government pays to reticulate water to people's properties and therefore that the residents of Singleton, Golden Bay and Madora are being harshly treated," Water Resources Minister Roger Nicholls said.
"There have also been too many attempts to produce hypothetical figures about what the costs should or should not be in those areas.
"The latest of these has been Cr Chris Elliott's serious distortion of the Water Corporation's policy on setting charges for new public water supply schemes for existing communities.
"Cr Elliott purports to be working from an eight-page document (PCY186) adopted by the then WA Water Authority in 1992.
"As part of its principles it considers the possibility of an upper limit on community contributions and specifically states that this should be consistent with the contribution required from developers of a new subdivision.
"The policy then states that the standard limit will be a Single Residential Equivalent (SRE) headworks contribution for each lot plus the cost of reticulation.
"At present, the standard headworks contribution is $2,359 per lot and then there is the cost of actually putting the pipes in the ground to deliver water to the boundary of each property.
"The estimated costs put to residents to have scheme water delivered to Singleton, Golden Bay and Madora are much less than the costs that would be faced by a developer providing water to blocks in the area.
"The Water Corporation estimates that the cost per block for a developer in that area would be about $4,300.
"From this it is obvious that the residents of Singleton, Golden Bay and Madora are well below the upper limit at which some reduction of costs could be considered.
"The figures in the Government advertisement are the most reliable estimate of the cost to residents over a 10-year repayment period. None of the other figures that have been bandied about can help people make up their minds on a sound, factual basis.
"The Office of Water Regulation is now analysing submissions made by local residents and will advise me about future options."
Media contact: Hugh Ryan 322 6529
