General manager Peter Thompson told councillors that Wagga City could be held directly responsible for meeting transport regulations by Roads and Maritime Services.

Mr Thompson made the comments during Monday’s council meeting in response to a question from Councillor Paul Funnell.

“The only thing I can say tonight is we have not been approached by the RMS at the moment,” Mr Thompson said.

“There is definitely an issue there in that although we don’t own the stock and we don’t have contracts with the carriers, we have a facility that now brings us into the fray, so far as that chain of responsibility is concerned.

“We would obviously prefer not to have a weighbridge out there that we would have to build, but until we have a conversation with RMS, I don’t have an answer as to where we’re headed for that.”

Last week, Fairfax Media reported that Dubbo and Forbes councils have been issued with improvement notices and the industry body, the Australian Livestock Markets Association, believed Wagga was next on the list. 

Wagga mayor Greg Conkey said he had seen the newspaper report and it was a “very important” issue and council would “keep an eye on it”.

Forbes Shire Council general manager Steve Loane told The Rural last week that the cost of installing a single remote weighbridge could be as much as $2 million.

He said the weighbridge would need to be remotely operated, because trucks come and go at all hours and it would have to be capable of taking photos of the back, front and sides of a truck and identifying the truck driver.

Then, if a truck was overloaded, there would need to be extra yards to hold offloaded animals.

Cr Kerry Pascoe asked Mr Thompson if truck drivers could use existing weighbridges outside of the marketing centre.

Mr Thompson said the council would be responsible for making sure that each load was compliant before it left the marketing centre.

An RMS spokesperson said accurate weighing facilities were required at Forbes and Dubbo given the number of heavy vehicle movements.

While you’re with us, did you know that you can now receive updates straight to you inbox each day at 6am from the Daily Advertiser? To make sure you’re up to date with all the Wagga news sign up here.