MAYORS TO TALK THROUGH WATER SUPPLY ISSUES

Exclusive

By TIM HOWARD

Clarence Valley and Coffs Harbour mayors will hold talks this month in the hope of avoiding a legal fight over the cities’ water supply.

Clarence Valley Council deferred making a decision to enter formal negotiations with Coffs Harbour City Council on a revised bulk water supply agreement after dispute resolution process between the two councils failed to meet its December deadline.

The council was about discuss a general manager’s report which if passed would have set this process in motion.

But an 11th hour phone from Coffs Harbour mayor Paul Amos to his Clarence counterpart Ian Tiley has delayed a decision.

Cr Tiley told the March 28 meeting he had received a call from Cr Amos just 30 minute before the meeting and moved to defer the matter for a month.

“I advise councillors that half-an-hour ago I had a call from the Mayor of Coffs Harbour City Council, and I can advise that his council is not supportive of the officer’s recommendation on page 11 of your business paper,”

“They seek a deferment so that the two mayors can discuss the matters involved.

“I think for the sake of one month to have that discussion is probably advisable because at the present time we have a situation where they’re not agreeing to what we are saying.

“I’m prepared to move from the chair that the matter be deferred for one month to enable discussions with Coffs council.”

Cr Bill Day seconded Cr Tiley’s motion.

The two councils have been a loggerheads over the bulk water supply agreement first agreed to in 2004 between the then Lower Clarence County Council and Coffs Harbour.

In 2021 Essential Energy transferred is Nymboida water supply assets, setting off negotiations between the Clarence and Coffs Harbour councils over capital and operational needs, but they failed to reach agreement by last

December.

While Clarence and Coffs Harbour councils have held informal talks about the Regional Water Supply agreement for more than a decade, the absence of significant issues pushed the matter onto the backburner.

But the transfer of Essential Energy assets nearing their use-by date and a 20-year-old water supply pipeline, has made funding asset renewal more urgent.

Clarence Valley Council has looked into the necessary governance arrangements and prepared a draft agreement, which was provided as a confidential attachment to councillors.

Council sought legal advice from Marsdens Law Group, which recommended the councils set up an advisory committee made up of people from both councils to oversee and agreement, which would then go to both councils for endorsement.

Marsdens advised this structure was the preferred arrangement for other councils involved in joint water supply projects.

The last minute call between the mayors did not please all councillors.

Cr Debrah Novak asked the general manager, Laura Black, who prepared the report before council, what she thought of the proposed deferral.

She said her preference was in the report, but if the council voted to defer to all the moves to talk, that was council’s prerogative.

Cr Karen Toms said she preferred pressing ahead with the general manager’s recommendation.

“I’m very disappointed that the Mayor would contact another Mayor about an officers report from a general manager half an hour before a council meeting,” she said.

“It’s an issue that we need to resolve and there has been, should I say, conflict in the past.

“This is something we need to make the decision about; it is not their decision to make.

“We need to desperately update the agreement, so we don’t have issues like we had earlier in this year with water coming back from Karangi Dam.

“I think that it’s poor form that the mayor has tried to hold this up for another month.”

In reply Cr Tiley said he received a text from Cr Allison Whaites, who was an apology at the March meeting, advising he talk to Cr Amos about the matter.

“Their solicitor has a very different view to our solicitor,” he said.

“For the sake of a month, lets talk, talking saves the need for litigation.”

Council passed the deferral motion 6-2, with Crs Toms and Novak against.