Central Coast Council has confirmed that rates for water, sewerage and stormwater services will rise by 11.9 per cent from July 1 as it moves into year three of its four-year Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) Determination.
Administrator Rik Hart confirmed the rise at the May 28 meeting, despite an impassioned address at the public forum by activist Kevin Brooks.
Council said the combined yearly bill for a typical household would increase by approximately $168.03 (based on 170 kilolitres of water usage per year).
Director Water and Sewer Jamie Loader said the increase would allow Council to provide services that met community needs and expectations, now and in the future.
“The price increase in July is consistent with IPART’s determination to ensure Council can deliver these essential services,” Loader said.
“This year Council commenced work to deliver an $82.5M upgrade to Mardi Water Treatment Plant ensuring the security of the Central Coast’s water supply.
“The NSW Government provided $6.85M through the Safe and Secure Water Program with over $75M funded by Council.
“Since July 2023, Council has upgraded over 21.3km of new sewer lines and renewed 3.3km of watermains across the region.
“In addition, Council responded to 347 water main breaks and 796 sewer chokes across our network.”
Loader said the determination would provide sufficient revenue to address the large maintenance requirements, but it would take a number of years before the improvements to the assets translates to an improvement in overall service performance.
Administrator Rik Hart said that in May 2022, IPART determined that residents would prefer that any necessary price increases be applied gradually.
He said the 2022 determination, which included a series of gradual increases, followed a 2019 determination which resulted in price reductions of more than 20 per cent.
After adjusting for inflation, residents will now be paying very similar prices to what they paid in 2018 for these services, he said.
Residents of the former Gosford area will be paying slightly less and those from the former Wyong slightly more.
Kevin Brooks told the public forum that the rate hike would add to cost-of-living pressures in the region.
“Despite rising prices, I was recently supplied with dirty brown water,” he said.
“After reporting it, I received a reply from the Director Water and Sewer telling me Council is ‘a low cost service provider of water and sewer services’.
“Central Coast Water is rightly compared with Sydney Water and Hunter Water – the big three water utilities in NSW with scale.
“And from July 1 we will be paying 13 per cent more than Hunter and 28 per cent more than Sydney.
“What are we getting in return?
“And we see this quarter, Council is again behind on many key targets, including unplanned service interruptions, water mains breaks, wastewater mains breaks and wastewater overflows.
“IPART’s independent surveys also show no improvement in customer satisfaction over the past three quarters.”
Brooks said in February 2022, the Kellogg Brown Report presented to Council recommended not only structural change for water and sewer, but also improvements not requiring structural change such as cost savings, and improvements in performance and efficiency.
“The CEO was tasked with reporting back on this,” he said.
“When will we finally get an update on this report, including recommended improvements not even needing structural change?”
After the meeting, Brooks said it was disappointing that despite water rates going up 51 per cent in three years, Council now says it will be a number of years before customers see any improvement in overall service performance.
“That’s not what was being said three years ago when they applied for these massive price increases,” he said.
You can review the pricing for water and sewerage for the Central Coast by visiting the IPART website – ipart.nsw.gov.au
To check eligibility and apply for hardship assistance for payment of rates search ‘rates and hardship assistance’ at www.centralcoast.nsw.gov.au
Terry Collins