Council meeting update - 13 April, 2021

Tuesday 13 April, 2021

Here is an overview of outcomes from tonight’s Ordinary Meeting of Tamworth Regional Council:

 Councillors tonight supported a Mayoral Minute and agreed for Council to underwrite the efforts of a community committee raising funds to commission a life-sized bronze statue of Australian Country Music legend John Williamson. The statue will be unveiled as a nationally publicised highlight of the 50th Tamworth Country Music Festival in January next year. Joy McKean is patron of the fundraising committee and Tamworth Region Mayor Col Murray is the chair. The committee will officially launch the fundraising next month but the project needs to be underwritten by Council to allow it to proceed while the funds are being raised. In the Mayoral Minute, John Williamson was acknowledged as a ‘‘totally appropriate subject’’ who has “made an extraordinary contribution to our nations’ self-image and to maintaining the heritage of Australia’’. “He has also been a consistent supporter of the country music industry and the Tamworth Festival,” Cr Murray said.

 Councillors agreed to make a submission to the NSW Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) about its draft determination for the charges Water NSW and the Water Administration Ministerial Corporation (WAMC) will levy for bulk water across NSW for four years commencing 1 July 2021. The submission will include points about how the increase in prices in the draft determination for Water NSW charges are unpalatable, a suggestion to reconsider the capacity of the users in the Peel to pay increased costs, the impact the proposed cost increase will have on Tamworth, Moonbi and Kootingal residential consumers’ water bills, Council’s struggle with the inequity of water pricing across the state, and the discrepancy between the costs of water from Dungowan Dam and Chaffey Dam needing investigation and justification. They also decided to write to the State Member for Tamworth, Kevin Anderson, requesting that in the event IPART’s Final Determination results in significant price increases for Council and other water license holders in the Peel Valley, the NSW Government not pass on the full increase in charges recommended by IPART.

For more information, see the full reports at www.tamworth.nsw.gov.au/business-papers

Watch the video report here https://www.facebook.com/TamworthRegionalCouncil