Rodney Stevens
Clarence Valley Council will lobby the NSW Minister for Emergency Service, Jihad Dib to consider building a $6 million Emergency Services Coordination Centre at Grafton Regional Airport instead of Lismore.
The NSW Reconstruction Authority confirmed $6 million of state government funding has been secured to construct an Emergency Services Coordination Centre to service the Northern Rivers, with a consultant to be engaged to undertake a feasibility study.
So far discussions about a site for the centre have favoured Lismore as the preferred location.
The news of the Emergency Services Coordination Centre comes after the NSW Government announced $8.9 million in funding toward an Emergency Operations Centre to be co-located with a new Fire Control Centre at Grafton Region Airport in February 2023, as part of a $75.1 million investment to upgrade 13 fire control and emergency operations centres across the state.
At the August 27 Clarence Valley Council meeting, Mayor Peter Johnstone moved the Mayoral Minute that Council seek the support of the Local State Member to lobby the Minister for Emergency Services, the Hon Jihad Dib MP to strongly consider the Grafton Regional Airport as the preferred site for future development as an Emergency Services Coordination Centre.
Cr Johnstone said the Clarence Valley is considered one of the worst places, if not the worst for potential floods in the future, and with Grafton Regional Airport being close to the highway, railway, and transport links, and being flood free it is an ideal site.
He said despite Grafton ranking at the top in the State Disaster Mitigation Plan for flood, it ranked much lower in terms of bushfire risk, which he said didn’t make much sense when 60 per-cent of the local government area was burnt in the last fires.
“My push for this motion is not just because of the risk of flood to the Clarence, but also due to the risk of bushfire here, which I don’t think has fully been taken into account,” he said.
Cr Debrah Novak said she supported the Mayoral Minute and to have the centre located at Grafton Regional Airport was a ‘no brainer’ as it was the only Northern Rivers airport that wasn’t inundated in the 2022 floods.
She said there was a lot of work that needed to be done to Lismore airport to accommodate an Emergency Services Coordination Centre and the airport isn’t linked to the M1 motorway.
The Mayoral Minute was supported unanimously.