ALMOST four years after Cabonne Council was approached by the Rural Dental Action Group Molong remains among a handful of towns in the state without fluoride in the water system.

As part of the ongoing debate and with the community surveyed in 2011 by council, a community information session is to be held next Tuesday night at Cabonne Council Chambers in Molong with dental health professionals and council staff to address the community.

Action group advocate Marj Bollinger says she can’t understand why Molong residents are being deprived of a system which could improve their dental health.

“I can’t believe that this is still going on without a formal resolution and I would like to think commonsense will prevail,” she said.

Doctor Shanti Sivaneswaran, the principal advisor for NSW Health centre for oral health strategy will address residents along with Associate Professor Anthony Brown from the University of Sydney School of Rural Health on the health effects of fluoridation.

The meeting is to be held at Cabonne Council Chambers at 5.30pm on June 17.

Cabonne Council communications and media officer Dale Jones said it’s hoped as many residents as possible will attend the forum next week.

“All Molong residents will be able to ask questions of the panel,” he said.

Also on the panel next Tuesday will be Cabonne Council director of engineering and technical service Richard Minter and council urban services and utilities operations manager Jonathan Foong.

Although a spokesman from Cabonne Council was not available on Monday to discuss the reasons behind the latest community forum, in a written statement the council claims it is awaiting a directive from the state government on whether fluoride should be added to the Molong water supply.

Cabonne Council staff surveyed residents in 2011 with around half of the residents responding to the survey.

Of that number fifty six percent of 166 residents wanted fluoride added with 43 per cent or 128 saying they were against the proposal.

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