Council dam facing funds drought

THE Glamorgan-Spring Bay mayor has moved to assure residents the council is living within its means after maxing out its borrowing capacity for a project is looks set to now largely dump.

The council will hold a special meeting tonight to consider the future of the Prosser Plains raw water scheme dam at Buckland.

The 3000 megalitre dam has been proposed by the council chiefly to supply Tassal’s Okehampton Bay salmon farm and also the Solis development and TasWater.

It would be owned by the council and operated on the private farming property Twamley Farm.

Stage one — construction of pipelines from Prosser River to Okehampton Bay — is expected to be finished before the end of January. Councillors authorised general manager David Metcalf to begin drawing down a $4 million State Treasury loan in January 2017 for the first stage.

But, according to the report set to be discussed tonight, recent forecasts show another $600,000 is needed.

“Council has reached the State Treasury safe borrowing limits during the construction of stage one works and have no further council funds (cash reserves) left for the completion of the stage one works,” the council report states.

“It would not be financially responsible to undertake the stage two works.”

The report recommends the council not proceed with any aspect of stage two, which is the construction of the dam.

Mayor Debbie Wisby said she could not vote on the matter due to a conflict of interest, but she had approached Tassal on behalf of the council asking for the extra $600,000 to complete stage one.

“[Without the Buckland dam] they’ll have to get water from somewhere else — other existing dams or construction of a new dam in the area — that would be up to them and existing land owners to work out,” she said.

Cr Wisby said the council had worked hard to ensure it was financial stable. “We put forward a very conservative budget this year so that allowed us to get some cash in the bank,” she said.

“Things aren’t as grim as they were at June 30 this year. We’re trading our way out of our lack of cash situation and we’re living within our means.

Cr Wisby originally voted against the project.

Tassal was contacted comment. for