Ken
Halstead, Director Graduate Program, Local Government Engineering
at UTS, prepared a reply to the DLG circular which is now
also available.
Ken's conclusion is that Circular 06-01 does not definitively
resolve the power of entry issue for councils and that a negotiated
and formalised access arrangement with the owner of the land
is still the best method for accessing private property.
Members
may recall that Ken Halstead previously prepared the Water
Directorate publication Report on Access Provisions for
Local Government Water Services (Power of Entry) June 2001.
This report provided strong support for the Water Directorate's
argument that the reinstatement of the power of entry to the
Local Government Act 1993 was urgently required to avoid substantial
easement costs totalling in excess of $2 billion to be borne
by local government water authorities.
In
June 2002 DLG gazetted an amendment to the LGAct 1993 that
largely reinstated the power of entry through s191A and s59A.
In s191A the LGAct permits councils to enter private
properties for the construction of new works provided that
the works are authorised under the LGAct and s59A confirmed
councils are the owners of works of water supply, serwerage
and stormwater drainage installed in or on land by the council.
If
you have any further queries regarding your council's power
of entry please forward the issue to either the Water Directorate's
discussion
forum for comments from all member councils or to the
Water Directorate.
