A drought-related "communication breakdown" between the NSW government and Dubbo Regional Council has been overcome, according to mayor Ben Shields.
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The admission and claim the relationship had been repaired came after Cr Shields and Water Minister Melinda Pavey engaged in a public war of words about the council's response to the water shortage.
As part of its response to the drought, the government gave the council $30 million in June to expand Dubbo's groundwater supply.
It's not easy spending $30 million, despite what has been said.
- Mayor Ben Shields.
Less than three months after the funding was announced, Minister Pavey wrote to the council to ask if it had the capability to complete the $30 million project.
"Finally, we're on the same page now as government and with the minister on this one," Cr Shields said following private talks he and Ms Pavey had last week to resolve their spat.
"The minister is now quite pleased with Dubbo's progress so that's the most important thing," he said.
"We've got to have a more direct dialogue...it's pointless going through the technocrats on both sides, a lot of the time it needs to be minister to mayor and vice versa."
Dubbo was moving ahead with groundwater expansion projects and new infrastructure should hopefully be completed in 2020, Cr Shields said.
"It's not easy spending $30 million, despite what has been said," he told the Daily Liberal.
"Effectively you cannot build a bore within the city limits at the moment because, the problem is, you've got to spread the bores around the aquifer to make sure that it's spreading the load.
"That means you have to go, in a lot of cases, outside of town. You've got to build a very big bore because it's for a city.
"You've got to go through a tender process...find land to actually put this bore on wherever it is and get permission from landholders, potentially acquire land.
"Then you've got to look at things like easements for pipes, you've got to go through a tender process for pipes, you've got to go through multiple tender processes for things like this."
Council would not be legally and physically able to sink bores within "in a couple of months", Cr Shields said as he welcomed former Dubbo resident, and the NSW Opposition's spokesman on local government, Greg Warren to the city on Tuesday.
"It's a process that will take quite a lot of time," Cr Shields claimed.
"This isn't a private house just putting down a bore in your backyard, this is very, very technical.
"This myth that you can do these things within a couple of weeks of an announcement of $30 million is absurd."