News
15 October, 2026
Council intransigence forcing family to breakdown
Shaun Devitt has had enough. He’s been banging heads with Wingecarribee Shire Council for the past two years over a failed septic system and is getting nowhere.
Shaun Devitt has had enough.
He’s been banging heads with Wingecarribee Shire Council for the past two years over a failed septic system and is getting nowhere.
“We don’t know what to do …. We just keep going around and around,” he told The Southern Wire.
He said senior staff were unwilling to work towards a solution and his family continued to suffer as a direct result.
“This is not our fault but we’re the ones being put through the ringer,” he said.
Mr Devitt and his wife Anna purchased a property in Mittagong Road, Bowral, in 2016 – at which time they were advised by council that it was connected to the mains sewer.
However, a few months later – after noticing problems with an old septic tank in the property’s front yard – he contacted council and was informed that council’s sewer map was incorrect and he had been provided with the wrong advice prior to purchase.
The Devitts paid for the septic tank to be emptied and maintained for several years until they were told in November 2024 that the absorption trenches had failed.
Raw effluent has been spilling into their front yard ever since.
The Devitts were contacted by council’s insurer in January 2025 advising they would cover the cost of a new tank and remedial works associated with removal of the failed system.
After initially knocking back an application for a new system designed by Broadcrest Environmental Engineering, council approved an amended application – which the Devitts were unhappy with because of the limitations it would place on future use of their property.
They have also received advice that it would be impossible to install the approved system without additional works, including the construction of retention walls.
However, council is refusing to look at other options and won’t meet with the Devitts on-site to discuss a path forward.
In the meantime, the Devitts have been forced to significantly reduce the use of their bathroom and toilet facilities because of the risk that the ageing septic system will completely fail, spilling raw sewage onto Mittagong Road.
The wastewater is now so backed up that it is creating issues inside the home as well – which the Devitts have had to repair at their own cost.
Mr Devitt wrote to (then) mayor Jesse Fitzpatrick, (then) deputy mayor Erin Foley and council’s general manager Lisa Miscamble in March this year saying his family was at “breaking point”.
“We were not at fault in this situation, but we have become collateral damage through bureaucratic error and mismanagement.”
But council has refused to budge from its hardline stance.
When Cr Sara Moylan attempted to raise it as a matter of urgency at council’s September meeting she was overruled by incoming mayor Erin Foley who said it was important, but not urgent and that she would look into it,
And all that followed was another letter from council’s Director of Communities and Place, Michael McCabe, saying that council has already approved a solution and that all of Mr Devitt’s concerns – and the concerns raised by other people on the Devitt’s behalf – had been addressed.
The Devitts have sought help from Member for Wollondilly Judy Hannan and NSW Minister for Health Ryan Park.
A Senior Environmental Health Officer with the Public Health Unit has inspected the site and suggested that a meeting be held with council and “relevant technical specialists” to progress a solution.
That meeting is unlikely to take place.
Council’s general manager, Lisa Miscamble, has written to Member for Wollondilly Judy Hannan advising her that approval has been granted for a new Aerated Wastewater Treatment System (AWTS) and there is nothing stopping Mr Devitt from replacing the septic system.
Mayor Erin Foley has advised that she won’t get involved because the issue is “operational in nature” and has been the subject of previous correspondence.
The Office of Local Government has also advised that it won’t get involved “as this is a matter for council to address at a local level”.
“The Local Government Act 1993 (the Act) allows councils a significant degree of autonomy in their day-to-day activities,” the OLG said.
“This means that where councils act within their discretionary powers, they are not subject to intervention or direction by the Minister or OLG.
“This autonomy is balanced by the need for councils to be accountable and responsible to their communities for the decisions they make.
“The Act does not empower the Minister or OLG to intervene in the day-to-day decisions of a council, such as the decision to issue a section 68 certificate for sewage and waste management.
“The power to revoke or modify an already issued section 68 certificate rests with the authorised council staff.”
OLG advised Mr Devitt that he may wish to consider “seeing and being guided” by his own independent legal advice.
Mr Devitt said it was not just an issue relating to obtaining a section 68 and believes there are sufficient grounds under the Local Government Act for the Minister to become involved.
He alleges council’s handling of the issue “clearly shows maladministration, serious governance failures and dysfunction with little regard to the impact it is having on our family's health and wellbeing.”
Mr Devitt said written correspondence from his septic tank installer indicated the design approved by council was unviable because of serious safety, construction and cost implications.
“The cost alone to council's insurer should this design be constructed has risen from approximately $50,000 to potentially over $250,000 which we believe council's insurer would not be willing to accept,” he told the OLG.
Mr Devitt said a simple resolution would be for council to connect his property to the mains sewer.
He said council’s intransigence on the issue left him with little option but to pursue a legal course of action “which will cause us more stress and cost”.
Mr Devitt told The Southern Wire on Tuesday that he probably wouldn’t have purchased the property if he had known at the time that it wasn’t connected to mains sewer.
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