Another decline for the Central Coast
The recently published IPART water utility customer satisfaction survey clearly outline that Central Coast residents were not satisfied with Central Coast Council's performance to supply water to residents at a reasonable cost.
17 July 2024
GOSFORD West Council election candidate, Kevin Brooks has written to IPART reminding the Agency that it promised a performance audit after two years when it approved Central Coast Council’s application for a massive water rate increase in May 2022.
"I have written to IPART calling for an overdue performance audit," Mr Brooks said.
IPART, who set water supply rates for four years on 1 July 2022, said, "We have made it clear to Central Coast Council that we expect it to markedly improve its performance and be more accountable for its spending. We recommend a set of short-term and long-term measures to drive these improvements, including that the NSW Government provide us with the terms of reference to review the level of improvement after two years of determination period( from June 2024)."
Since IPART approved Council’s application, water rates have increased 51 per cent with a typical water bill now 28 per cent more expensive than Sydney and 12.5 per cent more expensive than Hunter Water.
The promised performance improvements have not materialised, with many performance measures going backwards.
Last week, IPART published its July Water Utility Customer Satisfaction Report, which included survey data collected up until May 2024. The survey strongly showed that there was a deterioration in customer satisfaction with Central Coast Council across all four categories.
Central Coast Water also remains well behind all the other comparison water utilities in the survey.
Public satisfaction with Central Coast Council is still lower than three years ago before Council applied for the recent series of water rate hikes.
The above graph shows “overall satisfaction, but the full survey results across all four categories shows:
Overall Satisfaction (see above graph): down from 5.8 last quarter (Feb 2024) to 5.6 this quarter (May 2024). It was 6.0 three years ago in April 2021.
Value for Money: down from 5.5 last quarter (Feb 2024) to 5.4 this quarter (May 2024). It was 5.7 three years ago in April 2021.
Trust: down from 5.7 last quarter (Feb 2024) to 5.6 this quarter (May 2024). It was 5.8 three years ago in April 2021).
Reputation: down from 5.3 last quarter (Feb 2024) to 5.1 this quarter (May 2024). It was 5.4 three years ago in April 2021.
Kevin Brooks said, “Water rates have increased 51 per cent in three years, but we’ve not seen the promised performance improvements in return.
"IPART’s latest customer satisfaction survey shows a drop across all categories this quarter compared with the last quarter.
"Customer satisfaction is also lower across all categories than it was three years ago when Council began the process of phased-in water rate hikes.
"Central Coast is also well behind all the comparator water utilities in the survey, and well behind results achieved by Sydney and Hunter when they were included in the survey twelve months ago."
Sydney and Hunter’s average overall satisfaction was 7.1 and 6.9 respectively, compared with Central Coast typically ranging between 5.5 and 6.0 and currently sitting at 5.6.
"A typical water bill here is more expensive than Sydney and the Hunter. So, we are paying far more for a far worse service," Mr Brooks said.
Many ratepayers warned IPART it was naïve to expect improved performance simply by throwing more ratepayers money at a poorly managed Council.
Instead, there needs to be reforms within Central Coast Council to improve management, efficiency, productivity and culture.
"This performance audit should be independent and focus on management performance, efficiency and culture. They were also mentioned as needing improvement in the Kellog Brown report over two years ago.”
IPART data shows a typical water bill on the Central Coast (based on 170kl water usage) is now 28 per cent more expensive than Sydney and 12.5 per cent more expensive than the Hunter.
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