June 25, 2013
A proposal to introduce a special levy on water and sewerage charges in this year’s South Burnett Regional Council Budget has been set aside for at least 12 months.
Instead, the Budget will only impose the 5.9 per cent rate rise forecast in last year’s Budget, plus a $200 per property roads levy to make up for a shortfall in State and Federal Government road funding.
The need for a water and sewerage levy was floated in April after Council was told by the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection that it needed to urgently upgrade Kingaroy’s Waste Water Treatment Plant or face fines of close to $1 million.
Waste from the plant briefly overflowed into the Stuart River catchment during the Australia Day floods, prompting the Department’s concern.
Council was told that it would need to lodge a development application for the upgrade by June 30.
However Council officers estimated the full cost of the upgrade would be around $26 million, roughly 50 per cent of the Council’s annual budget.
This would have forced the council to take out a loan from Queensland Treasury to cover the work, and to impose a $100 to $150 rise in water and sewerage charges to cover the repayments.
However sources told southburnett.com.au that after discussions with the State Government, the SBRC has been given extra time to begin work on the upgrade.
The Council now proposes to seek the loan in 2014, pushing the need for a rise in water and sewerage charges back by 12 months.
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