AMID the spittle-flying fury being directed at Tamworth Regional Council (TRC) over the Dungowan Dam affair, a critical point has been largely ignored.
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The prospect of the dam peaking at 6.9 metres and bursting its banks is not a one-in-a-100-year possibility, it’s a once-in-an-ice-age improbability.
And if such a freak occurrence does strike, it won’t just be 11 families in Dungowan clambering for higher ground. We’ll all be living on arks.
But such is the hyper-litigious environment of 2014 Australia, councils must have a contingency plan for the never-bloody-likely-to-happen.
That’s because, in the eyes of the law, bad things don’t occur anymore without someone, somewhere being accountable.
And so a handful of residents along the creek near Dungowan Dam are now facing a forced evacuation while taxpayers are slugged for a rebuild of their homes.
Close to 50 other homes in the area will suddenly be declared to be lying on a flood-plain, wiping a collective millions of dollars from their value.
Much like those residents, TRC has been thrust into a hell not of its own making.
How the council has consulted and managed the hellish situation should be where the real scrutiny lies.
Councillors have made the eminently sensible decision to choose the option which will cost the community the least amount of coin.
But questions linger over whether council consulted in a timely fashion.
The independent report was received in November 2013, council’s decision finalised the following month and yet residents were notified only last month.
The same accusations of poor consultation were heard following the “poo tax” furore and the behind-closed-doors sale of public CBD land for a new Woolworths/Dan Murphy’s.
It’s a failing that council has, in part, admitted to and claims it is working to rectify.
Information is about getting out, communication is about getting through.
With a raft of future-shaping projects set to go before council in the coming months, let’s hope that message gets through.