What the ??? (Ok so we got it wrong - we’ll admit it!)
A big thankyou to Sue Brooks for indirectly advising us that the decision to hold the opening of the Lenthalls Dam crest gates was made by State Government departments and not WBW as we incorrectly assumed. We just hope council has sent a grader out there to fix the road as it is an absolute disgace!
While on the subject we might like to ask why the dam had to be closed to the public for this opening? Was it to prevent anti-Traveston Dam protestors from attending? We’d encourage any anyone with spare time on Wednesday morning to grab your anti-dam posters and head out to the entrance to the dam to welcome the visiting dignatries.
The URI to TrackBack this entry is: http://bringbackstrewth.wordpress.com/2008/05/15/what-the/trackback/
In reply to the Washout article and this, the logo project was real. My comment was not dismissed, as you put it, by luke warm, but confirmed by him/her. It was axed on Tuesday because Wide Bay Water keeps a close eye on this blog and saw my comment, realised the PR mistake they were making and backed out. Tuesday would have been a smart day to take an RDO. One between the goalposts for the ratepayers though.
Wide Bay Water just can’t win, now look at the mess they have themselves in. The Council should be ashamed that they have given in to Wide Bay Water’s whims. How would Nancy rate this behaviour by our new Council? The answer is she that wouldn’t, as it involves Wide Bay Waster (nice one luke warm!)
Its great to see the power of blogs.. I hope all the informants who are starting to contribute continue to do so and that more join in. The more pressure we keep on our council and their subsidiaries to do the right thing the better!
for the record, i too heard about the logo project and from a very reliable source. it doesn’t surprise me at all that they pulled the pin when this was made public.
great work electric sheep!
local government vs private companies?
if you ask the majority of hb people what wbw do, they would probably reply “provide water and sewerage services to hb”?
they have a monopoly over that role. if it were as simple as that, they would have no need to paint logos on dam walls or take out ads in the chronicle telling us how gr8 they are? in fact, if it were that simple why would they be a separate entity to the council at all?
you can understand why they would be a commercialised business unit of the hbcc? but why did they need to corporatise? was it merely to allow them to pursue more entrepreneurial ventures than the local government act allowed, or was it about avoiding the public disclosure of information? were they really just shifting hbcc debt to the wbw balance sheet where it was safely hidden from the public? how much debt do wbw have anyway?
sorry, getting off the track. i know, they do more than just provide water and sewerage services to hb. there is the consulting they do, an apartment in china, lots of land, etc. how much net income do these other activities earn? hopefully more than the estimated extra $75-$150 per property in extra rates we are forking out to have them separate from the hbcc?
by the way, has ms bates resigned as a director of wbw yet? if you look in the dictionary under conflict of interest……….
there was a lot of talk before the election about whether wbw should be decorporatised? and since the election, not a peep. if i were a councillor i would be concerned about the poor return hbcc is receiving on the infrastructure it contributed to wbw on the back of the huge property boom we’ve just experienced? i would also be concerned that hbcc relies on the dividend it receives from wbw? in fact don’t they rely on it increasing substantially. is that likely? anyway in the end it seems the council are responsible for the hbcc and wbw. glad i’m not a councillor!
Ciao
cs
Strewthisback writes: Cold Shower, we believe Ms Bates did resign WBW many months ago and in fact the resignation was accepted if belatedly.