Mayor Thorley backs the No campaign in the SEQ referendum ...

Yes she has done it.

It must be difficult for the Mayor - not knowing which way to jump - she doesn't want Beattie to succeed where she failed but she also desperately wants someone, anyone, to drink recycled water.

So it seems she's jumped to the No side for the SEQ referendum.

Mayor Thorley is quoted in today's Chronicle as follows:

Basing her figures on a Parsons Brinckerhoff report prepared for the Water Futures plan, the Toowoomba mayor said people would have paid about $40 extra in rates per year, had the recycled water scheme been adopted in July.

"Residents could instead expect to pay up to an additional $900 per household, per year for the Wivenhoe Dam connection announced by Peter Beattie this week."

The price difference could prove to be prohibitive for some people, Cr Thorley said.

See - Mayor Thorley advocates No case position for SEQ poll.

She is, of course, basing her comments on the Parsons Brinkerhoff report which failed to examine the actual costs of Mayor Thorley's Water Futures proposal. (The report also did not provide any figures for a Wivenhoe connection.)

Water Futures looks more and more like it would have been a blow out project costing the city somewhere around $150 million plus with the city needing to shoulder additional debt of somewhere around $80 million. And that's beng conservative!

Given that Toowoomba currently runs around $50 million of debt on its balance sheet, even with the somewhat generous interest rates offered by QIC, the debt required for Water Futures would have saddled Toowoomba residents with debt for generations.

Imagine the increase in rates just to pay the interest bill for the great Thorley experiment.

Somewhere around $150 per annum per household.

Anyway, Mayor Thorley says that the Wivenhoe link will result in a $900 per annum increase in rates per household. While this is just the Mayor plucking completely random numbers 'out of the sky' - as has been her custom, the No campaigners must be thanking her.

Mayor Thorley is now a confirmed SEQ referendum No case supporter.

The way to ensure that the Wivenhoe connection is not built, is to vote No on March 17. Toowoomba will then be able to access the other options closer to it.

She'd hate to admit it, but she's arguing for the No case once again ...