Council Call Extra Ordinary Meeting After Water Blunder

Who signed off on the deal? This is the question that no one seems to want to answer regarding the sale of water from the Woolgoogla Dam.

Prior to Christmas a deal was formed between Coffs Harbour City Council and a local blueberry farming company for the sale of water from the dam. Concerns were raised by Coffs Coast locals, Councillor Sally Townley and Labor spokesperson Tony Judge which lead to the NRAR (Natural Resources Access Regulator) confirming that the deal breached the licence held by the Council for the water use.

Triple M asked a range of questions prior to Christmas to the Council, the mayor, and all councillors about the situation, but still have not been able to get a written response from Coffs Harbour City Council to our questions.

On Wednesday afternoon, Coffs Harbour City Council announced that there would be an extra ordinary meeting to be held on Monday 13 January at 5pm to discuss the matter.

This meeting however will be to ask for sign off to essentially move the goal posts for the council’s current licence.

In the motion named to come from Mayor Knight, Cr Swan, Cr Adendorff, Cr Amos and Cr Cecato, their intention is that Coffs Harbour City Council, “as a matter of urgency make application to the NSW Department of Primary Industry and Environment to amend the “purpose” for which the Water Access Licence (WAL) No. 36672 and Approval number 30CA308020 in respect of Woolgoolga Dam are held such that the Licence and Approval allow the permitted use to include agriculture / irrigation.”

Council are also asking that councillors vote to “undertake a community information/awareness program to provide relevant information to the community."

Whether you agree with the sale of the water or not, the question still remains, who in Coffs Harbour City Council signed off on the sale of the water without checking that it was legal to use for agriculture?

A question that many Coffs locals have been asking in recent weeks.