Eighty per cent of Mountains residents have endorsed the highest levels of rate rises for the next four years, after responding to Blue Mountains City Council's invitation to choose a future direction for its work.
More than 4000 people made submissions after council sent out brochures setting out the different ways it could consider funding future projects.
The three options were: to improve service levels at a cost of $2.18 extra a week each year for the next four; to maintain service levels with a $1.69 a week rise; or to reduce them, which would involve a rise of just 53 cents a week.
Option one proved by far the most popular, selected by 56 per cent of those who responded. Almost 24 per cent preferred option two and just 20 per cent selected option three, with its smallest rate rise.
Faced with costs rising faster than income, and with a reduction in money from higher levels of government, council decided some months ago to seek the community's input into resourcing the future.
The letter accompanying the options brochure put it plainly: "Quite simply, the available funding is insufficient to continue current service levels into the future."
It then asked ratepayers to nominate which path council should take.
The mayor, Mark Greenhill, said the people had spoken loud and clear.
"In my view, we asked the community to tell us what they thought. They have told us in emphatic terms," he said.
He was also "pleasantly surprised" with how many people responded.
The 4000-plus residents who put in submissions is by far the biggest response to any council issue ever. In comparison, the recent work on the draft local environment plan attracted about 1600 submissions.
Clr Greenhill said he was grateful that so many had taken the time to consider the material and respond.
"I would like to thank the community for their interest in, and feedback on, council's resourcing our future proposal... We genuinely wanted to hear what the community had to say and we have done just that."
The project's manager, Rosemary Dillon, council's group manager of integrated planning and finance, said council had to live within its means and had already made many savings under a six-point strategy for financial stability, introduced two years ago.
"We are committed to continue finding efficiencies where we can. I am thrilled with how much progress we have already made," she said.
"We're not saying we are perfect ... but we are doing the best we can with the resources we have."
Council staff will now do further analysis on the public submissions and prepare a report to take to the councillors in December.
Council needs ongoing funds to maintain ageing infrastructure including roads, drainage, community and recreation facilities such as parks and leisure centres, to improve or maintain its capacity to respond to emergencies, such as bushfires, and also to continue to support environmental work in the area, including protecting bushland, waterways and wildlife habitats.