Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) will hold public forums in four locations across NSW, during May, to gather the feedback on their proposed approach before finalising the assessment methodology.

IPART’s consultation with local governments comes ahead of June 30, the deadline each each council in NSW has to submit a proposal to the state government outlining how it plans to remain viable in the future.

Mayor Phyllis Miller said the lack of notice given to local governments to prepare feedback to IPART was a “bit disappointing”, but Cr Miller said council would be strongly suggesting that sewer and water be taken into the panel’s consideration. 

“It was all a bit of a shock when this came out and council is planning on responding accordingly once it has been digested,” Cr Miller said. 

“We’ve always said we believe sewer and water should be incorporated into our assessment, we’ll certainly be letting them know that we think it is a very important part of our proposal,” Cr Miller said. 

Like all regional centres, Forbes’ sewer and water is owned by local council, but under the current IPART assessment criteria, it is not taken into consideration. The inclusion of sewer and water into the assessment would aid Forbes Shire Council’s proposal to stand-alone, with no merger.

Mayor Phyllis Miller said there is still a lot of work to do ahead of the Fit for the Future proposal submissions. 

“Our proposal is quite a body of work,” she said. “We have been discussing with neighbouring councils to get a feel for what they’re doing and we’ll be meeting with the mayor and general manager of Grenfell and later the Cabonne and Orange council mayors to continue discussions.”

Submissions will be received until 25 May 2015. A copy of the consultation paper and information about how to make submissions can be found at www.ipart.nsw.gov.au