Fluoridating town water supplies is back on the agenda in the Warrumbungle Shire.

A representative from the Department of Health will address today’s council meeting to discuss the benefits of fluoride.

In 2005, the council overturned plans to fluoridate water supplies in Coonabarabran after outcry from the community.

The council’s general manager, Bob Geraghty, says the shire’s six towns are now all eligible for government subsidies.

“Previously we had thought that some of the smaller towns might not have been eligible,” he said.

“But the advice at this stage is that they will all be.

“So the State Government, through its Department of Health, will fund 100 per cent of the implementation of devices to fluoridate the water.”

There is strong support from most Warrumbungle Shire councillors to introduce fluoride into town water supplies.

Mayor Peter Shinton says the new council contains a doctor and a couple of councillors with science degrees.

“The local dentist has said to me that we’ll probably have difficulty in attracting a dentist in the town the size of Coonabarabran if we don’t have fluoridated water,” he said.

“I think it’s something that will sail through.”