Blue Mountains: Water rip-off

Increases in developer charges of up to 414 per cent have led Blue Mountains mayor Jim Angel to label Sydney Water "deceitful and misleading".

"The residents of the Mountains are being singled out for special attention and it is quite simply unfair," he said.

"On two council projects alone, the Blaxland waste and Lawson town improvements, we estimate that the extra Sydney Water charges will amount to around $3.3 million."

Angel said charges for other Western Sydney Local Government areas were nowhere near those imposed on the Blue Mountains.

"In the Quakers Hill District they are paying wastewater charges of $1462 per residence compared to $19,125 per residence in the Blue Mountains and we are paying more than 10 times more for light commercial and light industrial development.

"How can these increases in the Mountains be justified?"

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