Essendon Council Approves New Water Infrastructure Levy; Bills Set to Rise for Residents

Essendon's city council passed a contentious water infrastructure levy on Wednesday evening, committing 4.2 million pounds to replace corroded pipes and upgrade treatment facilities over the next five years. The vote, which split the nine-member council along largely predictable lines, signals the city's first major infrastructure charge increase since 2019 and will affect every resident served by the municipal water authority.

The timing reflects a wider pressure facing local authorities across the region. Water systems installed in the 1960s and 1970s are now failing at higher rates. The Essendon Water Authority reported in its March asset condition survey that 18 percent of residential mains now show signs of significant corrosion, with emergency callouts for burst pipes up 34 percent over the past two years. Deferring repairs, engineers warned in a report submitted to council, would compound costs exponentially and risk service interruptions to households in the eastern suburbs by 2028.

For Essendon residents, the numbers are immediate and personal. A household paying current charges of 156 pounds annually for water and sewerage will see that bill rise to approximately 175 pounds under the new levy. Residents in properties with higher water usage or businesses operating within the Essendon jurisdiction will face steeper increases. The council's impact statement, published ahead of the vote, projects the full five-year program will cost the average homeowner roughly 110 pounds in cumulative additional charges.

What the Pipes Mean for Daily Life

The spending target addresses a specific local problem. The Essendon Water Authority has documented 47 recorded main breaks in the past 18 months in residential areas alone, from Gladstone Road to the Northgate industrial zone. Each rupture typically cuts service to 200-400 properties for 8 to 24 hours. The current repair backlog stands at 23 documented high-priority sections awaiting replacement. Under the council's approved spending plan, the authority expects to address 12 of those sections within the first three years, prioritizing neighborhoods with the oldest pipe infrastructure and the highest incident rates.

The council also allocated 620,000 pounds from the levy toward upgrades to the Ashford Road treatment plant, which processes water for 68,000 residents across central and western Essendon. That facility has operated beyond its original design capacity since 2021, forcing the authority to purchase supplementary treated water from neighboring suppliers at a cost the council says now consumes 8 percent of the authority's annual operating budget. Completing the upgrade is expected to reduce that cost by roughly 340,000 pounds annually by 2029, offsetting some of the new charge burden for future budgets.

Who Voted Yes and Why

Council members supporting the levy pointed to the deteriorating condition reports and the risk of service failures if spending continued to be deferred. The Water Authority's own projections, filed with the council's infrastructure committee in May, showed that delaying the program would require emergency spending of 6.8 million pounds over ten years as failures accelerated. Seven council members voted in favor. Four opposed, arguing instead for a phased approach and requesting further investigation into whether operational savings could fund part of the work. The council's finance director confirmed in a June report that operational efficiency measures had already cut authority costs by 3.2 percent over the past two years, and that further reductions of that scale would require service reductions.

The levy takes effect July 1 of the next financial year. Residents can review the specific breakdown of planned work by district on the Essendon Water Authority website. The authority says it will issue updated bills eight weeks before the new charges begin. Any resident facing financial hardship can apply for the council's existing assistance scheme, which currently helps approximately 2,100 Essendon households manage water and sewerage payments.