BATHURST'S tough water restrictions have inspired a new revenge for warring neighbours: the no-breach complaint to council.
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Bathurst Regional Council has received hundreds of reports from residents wanting to dob in their neighbours for breaching the Level 5 restrictions that came into effect last October to help ease the strain on Ben Chifley Dam.
Council staff must take the time to investigate each complaint and, where a breach is found, they first send out a courtesy letter to the homeowner before escalating to caution letters and fines for repeated infringements.
Just four fines have been issued in the nine months the restrictions have been in place but a report by engineering services director Darren Sturgiss identifies another worrying development.
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While council has received more than 300 complaints about water restriction breaches, it appears not all were made in good faith.
"To the end of June 2020, five new complaints were raised with council and are being actioned, bringing the overall total to 355," the report states.
"[But in] some cases, complaints appeared to have been vexatious, as no evidence of non-compliance could be found on inspection of the relevant property."
Mayor Bobby Bourke stressed the number of vexatious complaints was relatively low, but said they were a disappointing waste of council staff's time.
"They're not good neighbours, I suppose," he said.
"Council staff have to investigate every complaint so they [vexatious complaints] are a waste of their time.
"There are also cases where some people are using bores and we had a case where a resident had two big water tanks next to their shed and they were running a hose of them, which is fine as well.
"We don't have a huge deal of [vexatious complaints] but we do have to take the time to look at each one."
Meanwhile, Cr Warren Aubin said Bathurst should be shouting to the world about its success in reducing water usage since the introduction of Level 5 restrictions.
Mr Sturgiss' report said the average residential consumption of water in June was just 129 litres per person per day - 30 litres a day less than council had expected under Level 5 restrictions.
Cr Aubin said it was something to celebrate.
"Orange have put up notification boards that say what their usage per person is, and it's way up on what ours is," he said.
"We're down to 129; they were still raving about 140-something when I went through there [last week].
"We are doing a really good job, the people of this city are doing a really good job ... and I'd like to see people be congratulated for that and get it out in lights.
"We're up Orange like a rat up a drainpipe."
Cr Alex Christian said Mr Sturgiss' report was "a very good news story".
"The amount of work this council has done to ensure our water security is just unbelievable [and] I think it's really important that the community understands that," he said.
"... We're kicking goals and when people look back it will be us that were here, we did what was required to ensure our water security."
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