Issues for Ellesmere

Press, 26 September 1980, Page 9

Issues for Ellesmere

Conflict in sewage disposal and water supplies in Southbridge has generated the most interest for elections to the Ellesmere County Council and its two community councils;

In contrast to three years ago when no election was necessary because all council seats were filled exactly by nominations, voters will have a choice between nine candidates for the seven Leeston Community Council .seats and 11 for the seven Soufhbridge Community Council seats.

One of Ellesmere’s seven ridings will be contested. In Irwell, the three sitting members, Crs R. L. E. Skilling, W. E. Walker, and E. M. Brooks, have been joined by a new candidate, Mrs Neroli Osborne.

The county council’s 13 members all seek to retain their seats. A decision will have to be made early in the new local-body term on a

course of action over the conflict of the use of underground water aquifers which supply Southbridge’s domestic water and sewerage needs. A Planning Tribunal decision last month urged action soon to separate the two services to avoid possible contamination of water supply and the issue was the subject of a public meeting in the township in May. Residents were then told a proposed sewage reticulation and treatment scheme was estimated to cost $520,000 and would result in a 320 per cent leap in Southbridge’s property rates. The alternatives to this, to be decided first by the community council and then at county level, are installation of a reticulated water supply, a cost estimate of which has yet to be made, or maintenance of the status quo. The latter will halt any further development in Southbridge. Dunsandel may face a similar unenviable predicament and this will be the subject of a report soon by the county engineer. The three Southbridge Community Council candidates who responded to a request by “The Press,” made to all election candidates, for their views on issues emphasise a need for thorough examination of the situation and solutions.

Dr J. Lappage, South Community Council Research physicist for Wool Research Organise? tion. Dr Lappage is concerned with the township’s present arrangements for sewage disposal and water