2014-10-14 Planning & Organisation Committee Agenda - Pages 1 - 50

PLANNING & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                14 OCTOBER 2014


Structure of On-site Waste Water Facility Audit Program

The existing waste water facilities audit program allows for Council officers to undertake a desk
top study of received service reports and investigate issues related to these reports.

The inclusion of a whole of Shire site specific testing regime will help Council and system owners
in identifying potential failing systems and/or misleading documentation related to system
performance. Service agents reports will be analysed and an on-site audit of the waste water
facility and disposal area will be performed to determine if the service agent reports are accurate.

Council officers will also determine if test samples should be sent for further detailed analysis to a
National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA) laboratory in order to provide robust scientific
evidence in the event that further enforcement or rectification actions are required.

Estimated Costing of Program Testing

The current legislation does not directly provide for a full cost recovery fee for this service,
however, Council has approved a one off fee of $174 for all new non-sewered plumbing
applications for the 2014/2015 year. This fee is to cover the costs of undertaking the registration
and complaint enquiries including site inspections for the existing program. Existing resources
and a portion of the one off fee will be utilised to cover initial testing fees and the cost of the
proposed additional testing.

Council officers have estimated that 50 detailed analysis tests may need to be submitted to a
NATA approved laboratory at $417 per request.

Other options including using new software applications and equipment are being tested which, if
successful, will considerably reduce the overall cost of the program.


Previous Council Consideration

Nil.

Finance & Risk

Consultation with Corporate Services has identified that additional expenditure of $10,000 within
the building and plumbing budget will be required for the initial set up of the proposed program
with further investigation required into the viability of reducing ongoing cost with the proposed
iPhone testing system. This will be submitted as part of the Budget Review 2 process.

Consultation

External Consultation - Community & Stakeholder

Discussions have been entered into with a number of local service agents and contractors in
relation to the benefits of undertaking testing of existing systems and the utilisation of electronic
submission of service reports.

Contractor’s comments include:
 A number of local contractors have requested Council to organise a public contractors
   meeting to discuss how we move forward together;
 Contractors requested support by Council to enforce service requirements.




                                                                                      Page 4 of 117