Mayoral Message
"I would like to acknowledge and thank everyone who has shown incredible resilience and unity in the face of the recent flood event. Our Council staff, emergency services, and our community have all played a crucial role in navigating through this severe and challenging weather event.
I empathise with all residents in Shellharbour City who have suffered the consequences of the recent rain event. As a council, we removed waste fees for our community to help as they recovered and cleaned up from the rain event. In the time from Sunday, April 7 to Monday, April 22, residents from Shellharbour completed 516 mixed waste or vegetation fee-free transactions at Dunmore Recycling and Waste Disposal Depot.
From this, 119 tonnes of mixed waste and vegetation has been disposed of. Council and SES received a number of calls for help following the rain event and Council is aware of at least 12 properties that had been impacted by flood waters entering their private residences. Council staff also helped on the ground, set up and were available to assist at recovery centres in Warrawong and Dapto as well as checking through the list of calls the SES received.
Further impacts to the community included:
- Written off motor vehicles that are essential to their way of living particularly those in caring and nursing roles
- Creeks in private properties that Council cannot access or provide assistance in cleaning
- Damage to gardens and landscaping
- Inability for some residents to access flood insurance for their private property
- Lack of state support for those who lost everything on properties
As part of our efforts at the Recovery Centres, we have placed a number of residents in touch with services that can help them navigate this challenging time. The dedicated Council staff continue to work on the ground to expedite the recovery process.
They've responded to more than 110 clean-up reports concerning public infrastructure and, as a result, 345 tonnes of mixed waste and vegetation have been dropped off at Dunmore Recycling and Waste Disposal Depot by Council from public land clean up. Last week, following ongoing reduced demand for flood impacted waste disposal from private land, Council decided to end the fee-free period for flood-affected waste.
Asking ratepayers to pay for a LGA-wide free kerbside waste pick up has the potential to be a large cost impost to the community. A kerbside collection is likely to take a number of weeks to complete and is not free. Council and therefore the community would be required to pay for this service in some way.
Extending waiving of a gate fee at Dunmore Waste and Resource Recovery Centre to kerbside collection would not be a responsible use of ratepayers money. Moving forward, I remain committed to supporting our residents. Council already subsidises the bulk kerbside collection. Council will explore (without commitment) the costs to ratepayers for a pre-paid kerbside service in the upcoming contract, which is due to be called later this year.
However, Council will need to remain cautious and not increase rates unnecessarily to provide a kerbside service that we know will not be used by all residents. Currently Council employs a user pays system where the generator of the waste who wants a kerbside service pays directly (albeit subsidised) for that service to their private property. A broad pre-paid service invariably will force those who don’t use the service to pay for others who do through their rates. In times like these, it’s the collective effort and unwavering spirit of solidarity that truly shines through.
Thank you."