The NSW Livestock, Bulk and Rural Carrying Association’s (LHBRA) NSW president Lynley Miners is aghast that the council is returning $710,000 in State Government funding awarded under the Fixing Country Truck Washes Program.

“I rang the council when I heard they were thinking of handing it back and asked them not to, that there were other options that could be investigated,” Mr Miners said.

The Post previously reported that the council applied for the funds on the basis the truckwash would be built on Southern Meats land as part of a cooperative arrangement in which the abattoir would also allow effluent discharge from an onsite treatment plant to discharge into its system.

The facility was originally estimated to cost $2.1 million but was subsequently revised to $1.5m when the council found it didn’t have enough grant funds.

But the council’s operations director Matt O’Rourke said following the delay, when approached again, Southern Meats was no longer happy to have the truck wash discharge into its system, lest it overload. He said the effluent management system was the critical factor and the estimated $600,000 cost for the council to build one on a separate site now made the facility un-affordable.

Councillors at their recent meeting decided to return the grant funding but to lobby state and federal governments to build a truckwash in Goulburn, given it was a biosecurity issue.

But Mr Miners has questioned the move and the cost.

“I thought if you were given $710,000, you wouldn’t hand it back,” he said.

“...Surely you would be able to find a way to do it for such an important thing and given Southern Meats is an export industry. They (the council) are not backing their ratepayers.”

The LHBRA was instrumental in convincing firstly the State Government to put up grant funding for country truckwashes. Former Roads Minister Duncan Gay then asked the Federal Government to chip-in $5m, bringing the total program to $10m.

Mr Miners said while it wasn’t enough, and councils often only secured half the amount requested, the fund was a great win from a NSW perspective.

“(But) to be honest, I think Goulburn Mulwaree is way off the mark in the way they’ve come up with the figure,” he said.

“I’ve seen other truckwashes built for a quarter of the price. This is a bad use of the funding allocation.”

Mr Miners said he asked the council to follow through on other alternatives. He cited a “high-tech” two-bay facility within New Zealand which cost $250,000.

“I think it’s ludicrous,” he said.

“Seven hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money and if you can’t construct something out of that, it’s a sad state of affairs.” 

Mr O’Rourke acknowledged that the council didn’t secure a written agreement from Southern Meats to have the truckwash on their land.

He told The Post the initial design was given to the council by Infrastructure NSW.

Staff estimated the initial $2m cost based on this design.

“Council was then offered $500k towards the project,” he said.

“Consequently some changes to the design were made to bring the pricing back to $1.5m which included in-kind contributions from the council for road works and in-kind contribution from Southern Meats, being the land where the truck wash would be based. A further $210,000 was then offered from the funding program.”

He said discussions with the abattoir had been ongoing and it was only recently they advised they didn’t want the facility on their land for fear of it overloading the on-site effluent management system.

“Staff have considered other possible sites but have been unable to identify a suitable alternative at this stage,” Mr O’Rourke said.

“Staff have had discussions with Infrastructure NSW prior to the report going to the council last week, and have been advised that if a suitable site is found we are able to reapply for funding under the Fixing Country Roads program.”

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