But Wagga City Council has defended the charges, saying they are part of the Local Government Act.

Keith Holder received a shock on his rates notice, when he opened the mail on Tuesday.

He noticed he was being charged more than $500 for sewer, stormwater and kerbside waste on an undeveloped block of land he had signed the deed for in emerging suburb Gobbagombalin only a couple of months ago.

“There’s nothing on it – it’s a flat block,” Mr Holder said.

“I thought ‘what a heap of garbage – there’s nothing for the garbage collectors to collect.”

Mr Holder said he contacted the council to demand answers, but was told there was nothing it could do.

“They basically told me bad luck,” the 70-year-old said.

“Why should I be getting the charge when I’m not getting the service for it?”

Mr Holder said he wouldn’t be the only one slugged the charges.

“Everyone out here building on a block would be suffering the same fate,” he said.

“Council is ripping us off.

Mr Holder was determined to take the issue further.

“I’m going to fight it,” he said. “I’ll pay the rate fees but I’m not paying the (other charges).”

Council finance manager Carolyn Rodney said in the case of the sewer bill – if a property was within 75 metres of a sewer line then a charge was payable.

“This charge is imposed because council’s sewer network has been constructed to accommodate for all the properties (new and existing), which council has paid for,” Ms Rodney said.

“The charge is applied because the service is available to the property and service availability is the basis for the charge consistent with the Local Government Act.”

Ms Rodney said the kerbside rate charged to land owners was because the council must make and levy an annual charge for domestic waste services for each parcel of rateable land where the service was available.

The council levies ratepayers $31 for vacant land.

“Council could potentially elect to charge a lower price for undeveloped land but this would result in higher charges for all developed properties as the pricing is set at a level to recover the actual costs of providing the service and maintaining the infrastructure,” Ms Rodney said.