Water rates set to rise on July 1

Central Coast Council is expected to rubber stamp a 12 per cent increase in water rates from July 1 at its May 28 meeting.

While the rise is in keeping with the four-year determination handed down by IPART in 2022, community activist Kevin Brooks said it would be a blow to the region’s ratepayers.

Brooks said information obtained from the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) showed a typical water bill on the Central Coast for water, sewer and stormwater will rise 11.9 per cent from $1,414 per year to $1,582 per year on July 1.

Brooks said Central Coast water rates will have risen 51 per cent in just three years and would typically be 28 per cent higher than Sydney Water, and 13 per cent higher than Hunter Water.

“Sydney Water and Hunter Water will not be increasing prices at all next year,” he said.

“A typical water bill in Sydney remains $1,232 and Hunter $1,407.

“This means Central Coast customers will be paying more than Sydney and Hunter customers for a worse service.”

Brooks said despite massive increases, Central Coast Council’s last annual performance report showed: water quality complaints were up more than 30 per cent; unplanned service interruptions were up 18 per cent; water lost to leaks was up almost 20 per cent; and water main breaks were up 13 per cent.

And Council’s last quarterly performance report, presented in February, showed Council was: 8 per cent behind target on water quality complaints; 77 per cent behind target on unplanned interruptions; 26 per cent behind target on mains breaks; and 54 per cent behind target on wastewater overflows.

“In IPART’s customer satisfaction surveys, Central Coast receives far lower customer satisfaction ratings than Hunter or Sydney (despite charging more), and indeed lower ratings than any of the comparator councils from Victoria,” he said.

“When Council applied for this four-year increase, many ratepayers warned IPART that throwing extra money at poorly performing and inefficient organisations doesn’t necessarily deliver improved performance.

“And that’s exactly what we’ve seen with key performance indicators going backwards or well behind target.

“Water rates are heading north while service quality is heading south.

“Customers are not getting value for money; things can’t go on like this.”

Brooks said improvements were needed in management performance, organisational culture, efficiency and productivity.

A Central Coast Council spokesperson said Council is currently preparing information on water rates to release to the community next week.