Blacktown City Mayor Tony Bleasdale OAM has paid tribute to the incredible efforts of emergency services crews in the wake of recent flooding.
At the same time, Mayor Bleasdale has called on all levels of Government to work together to come up with long-term, sustainable plans to deal with floods that are occurring with increasing regularity.
The recent severe weather event resulted in flooding, road closures and evacuations in some parts of Blacktown City, with the City declared a natural disaster area for the second time in 6 months.
“A huge thank you goes out to our volunteers, emergency services workers and our own Council crews for their efforts during the second major flooding event to hit our City in a matter of months,” Mayor Bleasdale said.
“We’ve had our local SES and RFS crews working around the clock, as well as SES crews from other areas, Australian Defence Force personnel, surf lifesavers, and Fire and Rescue crews all come together in this time of crisis.
“Council crews have been working around the clock on our roads and other areas of flood damage to assist our affected residents and businesses.
“My heart goes out to those people who have been affected, especially those who have experienced their third major flood in 18 months.”
“I’m calling for coordinated, long-term flood-mitigation planning involving all 3 levels of Government, emergency services, the ADF and the housing industry to provide some real solutions to this recurring nightmare for residents and businesses.
“Whether it’s management of water levels in Warragamba Dam, restricting development, house buy-backs, increased evacuation routes, large-scale water retention schemes, massive engineering works, increasing green space or a combination of all of these – we need the long-term plans now, not for the next 5 or 10 years, but for the next 50 years.
“Flood fatigue is real. It is having a devastating effect on the health and financial wellbeing of far too many residents, businesses and our volunteers.”
Council has worked with Resilience NSW in opening a Recovery Assistance Point in Riverstone from 18 July and is providing a free clean-up service in flood-affected areas.
The Recovery Assistance Point will operate in conjunction with a larger Recovery Assistance Hub at South Windsor and will offer support for affected residents and businesses.
Service providers will include:
Blacktown City Council
Riverstone Neighbourhood Centre
Services Australia
NSW Health
Red Cross
Salvation Army
Department of Communities and Justice – Housing
Legal Aid NSW
Insurance agencies
Resilience NSW.
It will operate in the Riverstone Neighbourhood Centre in Park Street for 3 weeks – Monday to Thursday 10am to 4pm, Friday closed, Saturday 10am to 2pm, Sunday closed.
Council will operate a kerb-side pickup service for flood-damaged goods and furniture in the following suburbs and streets:
White Street, Shanes Park Road, Eighth Avenue Bridge, South Creek Road – Shanes Park
Garfield Road West, Carnarvon Road, Clark Street, Riverstone Road, The Avenue at Walker Parade (Angus) – Riverstone
Palmerston Road, Simpson Hill Road – Mount Druitt
Townsend Road, Durham Road, Kerry/Angus Road, Jersey Road – Schofields
These streets will be visited by Council crews on Saturdays until the flood waste is removed. Bookings are not needed. More than 23 tonnes of waste was picked up on the first Saturday of this operation.
