WITH Chifley Dam overflowing, councillor Warren Aubin thinks it's time Bathurst residents are given a small reprieve from water restrictions.
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The city has been under some sort of water restrictions for almost three years due to drought conditions across the state.
In early 2020, Chifley Dam fell to below 30 per cent and had the community facing the very real possibility of Bathurst running out of water.
Fortunately, the situation turned around and by September the dam was full.
It has stayed that way for almost a year, prompting Cr Aubin to call for the restrictions to be lifted - but only temporarily.
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He plans to lodge a notice of motion to the September ordinary meeting of Bathurst Regional Council, calling for water restrictions to be paused for up to a month.
He said the reprieve would give residents an opportunity to conduct "spring cleaning" around their homes and gardens.
"There are a lot of people who want to be able to use their pressure washers to clean their driveways, maybe all their windows, and the roof of their house," he said.
"I think it would be a really nice thing to be able to do while there is plenty of water in the dam, which is actually overflowing.
"It's heading down the river, so why don't we use it and just relax the restrictions, let people do their spring cleaning and whatever they need to do around the house?
"... If the dam is at 102 per cent, we should be allowed to use the water."
It was an idea he had hoped to be able to bring to the August ordinary meeting, held Wednesday night, but did not have enough time to lodge the paperwork for.
Despite wanting the restrictions to be relaxed, Cr Aubin isn't ready for them to be scrapped all together.
"It's one of those things where you're damned if you do, damned if you don't," he said.
"People are getting on with their lives and we're using water, gardens are looking good because it has been raining, but you can bet your bottom dollar that as soon as we ease restrictions it will stop raining again.
"But it would be nice to be able to just relax them for two weeks or a month, just to let people get out while the weather is starting to get better.
"The weather is warming up a bit, so it'd be nice for people to get out into their yards, tidy the place up and make it look really nice again."
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