Former Lismore Mayor Vanessa Ekins slams new $10 million flood mitigation study, backs relocation plan
A former Lismore Mayor has backed the idea to relocate parts of Lismore and has slammed a recent $10 million flood mitigation study announcement. Here is her plan.
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Former Lismore City Mayor Vanessa Ekins has slammed Page MP Kevin Hogan saying his announcement of a $10 million flood mitigation study was “false hope” for the people of Lismore.
The war of words erupted after Mr Hogan announced a study was commissioned to explore options to flood mitigate the Wilson and Richmond River catchments as well as announcing over $150 million in funding to NSW flood-affected towns.
Mr Hogan took aim at former Lismore City council administrations saying the “debate is done” and that “engineering solutions” will be explored for flood mitigation.
“It is an insult to this community,” she said.
“I'm upset Kevin Hogan has put $10 million on the table for more studies because it’s false hope, we don’t need anymore money for studies.”
In her time as a Lismore City Councillor and Mayor, Mrs Ekins said the flood plain committee worked on modelling the catchment to understand how water moves which came up with six feasible engineering solutions.
She says six strategies that could be implemented to mitigate minor to moderate flooding are ready to be funded.
Among them include lowering river banks south of Albert Park, bigger causeways under Bruxner Highway and raising the South Lismore levee.
Mrs Ekins says a new study is paying lip-service to the people of Lismore and has urged the federal government to put money on the table to begin a relocation plan.
“We need hundreds of millions of dollars not for studies but to help people rebuild and help consider relocation,” she said.
“We need to think about retreat from the flood plains and the federal government should buy land and do a land swap for people who don’t want to rebuild.”
Lismore residents have broadly been against the idea of relocation but the severity of the most recent flood has convinced some in the region that the idea should be considered.
Page MP Kevin Hogan drew the ire of Councillor Ekins after claiming that former administrators in Lismore City Council have not “believed in engineering solutions for flood mitigations”.
“That debate I say to everyone who does not believe in engineering flood mitigation solutions for this town and this region your days are finished, that conversation and debate is over,” he said.
The study is set to focus on water security and water diversion which is expected to be completed at the end of 2022 or early next year.
Flood-affected local government areas across NSW have access to $75 million of funding for important projects in the short-term with another $150 million available next financial year.
The funding is being deposited from the notorious Emergency Response Fund which Northern Rivers locals begged the federal government to dish out for projects and income support.
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