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A MILLION dollar hole in the budget is big in anybody’s terms.
That’s the challenge for Albury Council — and if it cannot get that money back, unfortunately it puts pressure on other services.
That means a flow-on burden for other ratepayers and the wider community.
The council has the headache of clawing back $1 million in unpaid water bills.
As a last resort, it says, it has been forced to soon start installing water flow restrictors at the properties of those who simply ignore the bill in the mail.
Paying a water bill is no easy task.
For many people having to find several hundred dollars is a burden they have to fit in with an ever-increasing cost of living.
If the council was not willing to show any understanding of these pressures, the water flow restrictor option could be easily seen as hard-hearted.
Clearly though the council is not taking that approach.
Anyone who can’t afford to pay a big lump sum for their water and sewerage charges should not put their head in the sand and hope it goes away.
Instead, call the council and organise a payment plan — it will save you the inconvenience of having barely a trickle of water coming into your home.