Background
On the 27 February 2017, the NSW Land and Environment Court dismissed an appeal of the applicant seeking to invalidate the Rates and Charges notices issued by a respondent council – Prefabricated Buildings Pty Ltd v Bathurst Regional Council [2017] NSWLEC 44.
Facts
The matter concerned water availability charges and sewerage access charges (Availability Charges) being levied by Bathurst Regional Council (the Council) against the Premises which were owned by the applicant. Council had levied the Availability Charges against the Premises since 2004 under the authority of s 501 of the Act, and such charges had been paid by the applicant. Council also issued separate water usage charges and sewer usage charges (the Notices) under s 502 of the Act every three months in arrears, The applicant specifically challenged the validity of the Notices under s 574(1) of the Local Government Act 1993 (NSW) (the Act) on the basis that Council was only able to charge for water services and sewerage service according to the actual use of the service and had no power to make the Availability Charges, which were imposed independently of actual use. [...]
