Oura is only 14 kilometres from Wagga, but council’s decision not to deliver long-promised utilities has some residents feeling like they’re the city’s poor cousin.
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For 14 years people in the riverside village have been waiting for council to deliver a proper sewer system, but now they’ve been told that’s off the table, leaving them to replace their own septic systems.
John Smart was disappointed, but not surprised. After all, the 70-year-old has a 1.2 kilometre walk down a steep hill just to take his bins out, because his street is so rough garbage trucks can’t get up there. The sewer was just another issue for him.
“We might get a grader once a year, but they’re still happy to collect our rates,” Mr Smart said.
“Council say the road is crown land but my solicitor can’t find any document that says it is, which makes it a part of the town.
“I think we do get ignored, but we’re a pretty active community ourselves.”
There were three big issues facing the village, according to Wagga councillor and Oura resident Dallas Tout: Flood levels, sewage and the state of the roads. He raised it at Monday night’s council meeting to force the organisation into taking action.
“We need to have a common position so everyone can move forward,” Cr Tout said.
“There’s a lack of consistent communication with the community.”
Oura Progress Association president Sue Thomas said people were sick of promises being made but not followed up.
“In some cases they support us well, but some of the day-to-day nuts and bolts things don’t always get a positive response,” Ms Thomas said.
“The sewer was such a long, drawn-out process that seemed to keep getting pushed back and then we find out it’s completely off the table and we need to do it ourselves. A lot of people are living with septic systems beyond their use-by date that they haven’t upgraded because the sewer was always coming in six months, but now it’s not.”