General News
25 August, 2024
$22m flood repair cash - STILL WAITING
By CHRIS EARL STATE Government red tape has forced Loddon Shire Council to abandon some flood recovery funding bids. More than 75 per cent of recovery projects to fix roads, bridges and culverts damaged in the October 2022 floods are still waiting...
By CHRIS EARL
STATE Government red tape has forced Loddon Shire Council to abandon some flood recovery funding bids.
More than 75 per cent of recovery projects to fix roads, bridges and culverts damaged in the October 2022 floods are still waiting on bureaucratic approval.
The 648 projects budgeted to cost $22 million on latest estimates remain stuck in the Government’s in-tray.
A frustrated council has already pulled two projects from the list and has had only three projects approved this year.
“Council has (instead) funded two significant projects that could have been claimed through the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements - a gravel road resheet to a school bus route named Emu Logan Road ($123,000) and a sealed road reconstruction on one of our busiest roads, Pyramid Yarraberb Road ($1.2 million),” shire CEO Lincoln Fitzgerald said on Monday.
He said the Government had approved just three Loddon projects since January 1, worth a total of $301,740. Some roadworks across the shire have been finished while contractors will start the third, a bridge at Arnold, within weeks.
Council leaders have vented frustration with the Government’s multi-layered approval process.
Delays were raised with Premier Jacinta Allan in early January as the region was hit last summer by floods for a second time in 14 months. Some roads damaged in 2022 still waiting copped another whammy as more than 250mm on Christmas Day marked the start of a fortnight of flooding in Victoria.
But Mr Fitzgerald said: “Delays in progressing claims has started to improve in the past six weeks, however this process is now almost two years post-flood. Progress is still slow and the risk of completing works within the set timeframes remains significant.”
Council has until next June to finish flood recovery repairs funded under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements between the Federal and State Government.
According to Mr Fitzgerald, it is likely further works will be removed from Loddon’s list of funding applications “due to insufficient photographic evidence of damage” demanded by the Government.
He said: “Delays occur as a result of the need to satisfy the high evidentiary requirements of the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements agreement between the Commonwealth and State Government but also the State’s DRFA Guidelines which set a higher standard for local government to apply for funding and provide evidence.”
Mr Fitzgerald said the $22 million of outstanding approvals was separate to damage from the 2023-2024 summer storms.
“Inspections following the December 2023 flood event initially identified a proximately 199 items of damage with some work being removed from the October 2022 event and included in the December 2023 event where additional damage has occurred,” he said.
Repairs to the Chamberlains Road Bridge, off the Calder Highway near Inglewood, have also been rejected for Government disaster funding with Loddon Shire last month transferring work to its infrastructure program for this year.
The bridge was abruptly closed in June, sending residents on an 8km detour to reach the Calder Highway. And works at Wedderburn’s Skinners Flat Reservoir, where the wall breached in October 2022 has also been ruled out of getting disaster funding.
“Long-term rectification of the Skinners Flat Reservoir wall and spillway is not eligible for funding under the DRFA,” Mr Fitzgerald said.
“This work is beyond the financial capacity of Loddon Shire Council without significant financial assistance from State and/or Federal governments.
“Council is currently working to redesign the spillway and wall structure to meet modern standards as well as regular monitoring activities to ensure safety.”
A Victorian Parliament inquiry last month found councils had been left with a government flood recovery funding model that did not rebuild infrastructure to withstand future disasters.
Parliament’s environment and planning committee report on the October 2022 floods called for funding models to prioritise “betterment initiatives”.
The 10-member committee found the process for funding under the Commonwealth-State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements posed “a significant administrative challenge for local governments who bare the evidentiary burden”.
“The feedback from councils to the committee clearly called for a more streamlined, efficient, and transparent disaster recovery funding process.
“The process should enable local councils to focus on recovery and mitigation without being unduly burdened with administrative hurdles,” the Parliamentary inquiry found.
Council’s flood inquiry response
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