COUNCILLOR Jess Jennings has slammed the city's new leadership team as tensions between councillors appear to be getting worse.
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In Thursday's Western Advocate, mayor Bobby Bourke said that he felt time and a commitment to working together would be the only way to heal wounds after the recent mayoral election.
However, Cr Jennings has said that time won't fix it, claiming that the new mayor and new deputy mayor, Ian North, are the problem.
"It's not time that will heal these wounds, it is a bit of genuine leadership," he said.
"We've got a mayor and a deputy who don't have a clue about water, who voted against level three water restrictions during the worst drought in living memory."
He went as far as to say that Bathurst would suffer until the duo "demonstrate some understanding" of the current water crisis.
"I like them both as people, but as mayor and deputy mayor, it's very hard to see that they have the capacity to do the job," Cr Jennings said.
He also claimed that Cr Bourke had no interest in a two-day drought forum in Sydney this week, which Cr Jennings went to, and that he did not sit in on forums council had with irrigators.
Cr Bourke dismissed the claims by Cr Jennings that he didn't care about water.
He said he was never against water restrictions or conserving water, but rather changing the trigger point to a dam level of 75 per cent after council had just adopted a policy stating the trigger was 40 per cent.
That was why he voted against the recommendation put to council 12 month ago.
"[Cr Jennings] is just completely wrong," he said, adding he wasn't interested in having a "tit for tat" fight with his colleague.
Cr Bourke says he is committed to saving water and finding alternatives to ease the crisis, and this week has spoken to three ministers about the water situation.
Those conversations have led to a meeting with the Minister for Water, which will be held at the end of October.
At Wednesday's council meeting, which Cr Jennings was absent from, Cr Bourke asked his colleagues to raise any questions they had about water ahead of the meeting.