Toowoomba not expecting water bill surprises - ABC Online

By Sam Burgess

Updated May 06, 2013 11:50:58

The Toowoomba Regional Council says water prices should remain stable, despite less revenue from water consumption.

Users of the south-east Queensland water grid have been told to expect a $50-a-year rise because of ongoing maintenance.

Water portfolio councillor John Gouldson says that rise will not affect the Toowoomba region because it is on a separate grid.

Charges are set by the council, not a water utility.

However, Cr Gouldson says the continued emphasis on water conservation is putting pressure on the council's ability to pay for new infrastructure and maintain the system.

"It certainly has an impact but we have to take that into account and obviously now we can have some predictability to it," he said.

"In the sense that we know that people seem to be locked into a habitual pattern of using less water and we can take that into account when we set our charges."

Cr Gouldson says most of the local infrastructure has been completed and with consumption at low levels, there will not be any huge rises in the next budget.

"We're in a pretty good situation," he said.

"I think one has to give a lot of credit to the previous council because they made the tough decisions and for many years now we don't have to consider building a new dam."

Topics: water-management, local-government, water, toowoomba-4350

First posted May 06, 2013 11:49:51