A CLOUD of uncertainty hangs over Tweed's future water supplies after councillors late yesterday ditched plans for a new dam at Byrrill Creek, but refused to choose an alternative.

Tweed voters are instead likely to decide the issue, with some councillors and conservationists predicting the future of a dam or alternative water-saving measure will be the major issue at the next Tweed council election in 11 months.

Mayor Barry Longland used his casting vote to kill off plans for a second major dam at Byrrill Creek, west of Murwillumbah, after a tied three-all vote on rescinding an earlier decision in favour of the dam.

Councillor Joan van Lieshout created the deadlock by not voting after quoting a "perceived" conflict of interest because she and her husband own land which would be affected by the planned dam.

But Cr van Lieshout then voted against the alternative of raising the wall of the existing Clarrie Hall Dam, which she said would flood the properties of 24 landholders.

"Let's let the people decide," she said, referring to next September's council elections.

Cr van Lieshout, along with councillors Phil Youngblutt, Warren Polglase and Kevin Skinner, voted against the alternative, leaving the council with no clear plan for future water supplies.

Crs Longland, Holdom and Katie Milne voted for raising the wall of the Clarrie Hall Dam, even though Cr Milne said she believed it was "not necessarily needed" if new de- velopments had water-recycling dual-reticulation systems.

Later a spokesman for opponents of the controversial Byrrill Creek Dam, Caldera Environment Centre secretary Sam Dawson, agreed the matter would be an election issue.

"The next council election will be an interesting election. I would like to think the Byrrill Creek dam is now dead and buried," he said. "From an environment centre perspective we support the line of no dams, but ... under duress we would support the Clarrie Hall Dam."

Cr Longland, before using his casting vote to ditch the Byrrill Creek Dam, said the Clarrie Hall option was a "clear winner".

"I don't think anyone living around the Clarrie Hall Dam was under any illusions this would happen one day," he added.

Cr Skinner, who used a casting vote as mayor a year ago to approve the Byrrill Creek option, said he had come to believe the decision should not be up to one person using a casting vote but "be made at next year's council elections".