What changes will customers experience?
There will be many benefits of the new Price and Service Plan for customers. Our advertising campaign hinted at some of these changes and further details are provided below:
Postive Changes are in the pipeline - Cradle Mountain Water believes that it is unfair that we have a range of different ways of charging people for the same service. No longer will the Annual Assessed Value of a home be used as the basis for calculating charges. The size of your connection will be used to determine fixed service charges for water and sewerage services will be determined by the amount of equivalent tenements# allocated per property. Postive changes that are fair and equitable.
On target for same price, same service - by 2015 most of our customers will be paying the same price for fixed water service charges. Free water allowances will be removed* over the next twelve months and water service charges adjusted to accommodate the removal of allowances.
Working towards fairness and balance in billing - water meters will be fitted to the majority of residential properties by 1 July 2012. This will mean that all customers will pay for the water they use, not just some.
Improving customer service - decreasing waiting times and improving customer service will be our aim. We have listened to your feedback and we are committed to doing better. We will visit regional communities to provide opportunities for face-to-face customer service. More customer service officers will be available to respond to your enquiries.
Investing in the region - to provide you with the water and sewerage service you expect, approximately $55M has been invested to date in upgrading or replacing water and sewerage pipes, pumps, reservoirs and treatment plants. The investment we make today will yield postive outcomes for the future of the region. On such example is Smithton where a major new industry is building a factory. Large investments result in employment and stimulate our economy.
Your environment and wellbeing is important to us - we are playing our part in protecting our natural environment by striving to meet high environmental standards through minimising pollution from sewage spills and sewerage disposal. Your health too, is important. Providing safe tap water for you and your family is our highest priority and we achieve this by aiming to have all communities inour region enjoying drinking water that complies with the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines.
Flushing is just the begining - we are not just suppliers of drinking water, we also remove waste from your home and trade waste from businesses and we plan to improve waste services. We are implementing a pricing system that makes sure that urgent upgrades can occur to treatment plants in poor condition to ensure treated waste does not harm the environment upon discharge into rivers or the ocean.
*Burnie free water allowance will not be phased out completely in the first year of the plan. Burnie customers will have their allowance adjusted to 200kl (average residential consumption) from the first year and removed altogether in the second year of the plan.
#Equivalent Tenement (ET) as calculated using the Water Services Association of Australia (WSAA) Sewerage Code of Australia estimation tools and the NSW Water Directorate. A single residential property is classified as one ET, representing the base charge. Non-residential customer installations are assessed to determine the number of ET's they represent using the code.