Forum –
Many Central Coast ratepayers may not be aware that Council has “slipped” in a slight change to the water rates and usage notices for all ratepayers.
They have deleted from the notice, the graph which provided a comparative look at the previous three periods.
This enabled you to see very quickly if your water bill had any sizeable change from normal.
Their excuse for this change was that they had received “feedback from ratepayers that the graph was often confusing and at times misleading.”
I find this difficult to believe, as anything that highlights anomalies in a bill is always helpful.
If nothing else, the graph puts your usage into context against the previous periods.
Going forward they will only provide you with a total usage of water for the period and the cost.
This doesn’t really tell you anything, to explain why the bill may be very high, or even a lot less than what you would normally pay.
This information is in a small section on the back of the bill.
The other reason for their change was so they could insert a small window for ratepayers to be able to register for E-Notices of their bills (email notifications instead of paper copies).
I believe that there would be a lot of other ratepayers out there who would oppose this change, as it makes it so much easier for you and Council to miss any irregularities in a bill.
I guess it is one way to reduce people calling Council to clarify the usage or size of a particular bill.
If you feel the same way, please feel free to let Council know those feelings.
Email, Sep 23
K. Lupton, Killarney Vale