Submission to the Independent Local Government Review Panel

Last week the Water Directorate made a submission to the Independent Local Government Review (ILGR) Panel in response to its report Future Directions for NSW Local Government, Twenty Essential Steps. 

The Water Directorate supports the ILGR Panel's finding that local government should retain its current responsibilities for water supply and sewerage and believes that LWUs are performing very well following the introduction of the NSW Office of Water’s Best Practice Water Supply and Sewerage Management Guidelines. 

The Water Directorate supports a flexible approach to delivering services based on a range of organisational models. We do not believe the “one size fits all” approach of Multi-Purpose County Councils based on regional centres will meet the needs of regional NSW. The concerns raised by the ILGR Panel in recent consultation workshops regarding “non membership” and “non bindingness” that relate to binding alliances and ROCs we believe can be overcome by a suitably developed “Deed of Agreement” under the Local Government Act 1993. 

High level advocacy and technical support is currently provided on a state-wide basis through the Water Directorate. The Water Directorate, as the peak industry body for LWUs, strongly requests representation on the proposed Local Government Development Board. The Water Directorate welcomes the opportunity to meet with the ILGR Panel to ensure that the provision of water and sewer services, an essential community public health service, is strengthened through the local government reform process.

A full copy of our submission is available here.