Cootamundra-Gundagai will put new flood plan of extended public exhibition

A new floodplain risk management study and plan, which proposed a number of protection measures against future flood events, was tabled at the Cootamundra-Gundagai council meeting on Tuesday night.

Councillors supported the study and approved it being placed on public exhibition for an extended period to give residents the chance to have their say on the best way forward.

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Cootamundra-Gundagai general manager Steve McGrath said there will be an initial 34-day public exhibition until May 1, followed by a community meeting with council and experts, with residents then given an extra week to have their say.

"The whole idea of the study is it acts as a platform to ... give an emphasis for the council to move forward and seek additional grant funding from the state government to implement those infrastructure improvements that will alleviate the flooding," he said.

The flood study suggested, among other things, that the council divert flood waters into a newly-constructed basin at the Cootamundra Turf Club.

It also suggests building a 1.5km long levee along McGowan Street and the installation of water level sensors and boom gates at the Poole Street and Thompson Street causeways, which would close when water levels rise to 0.3 metres.

The plan could cost the town upwards of $6 million, so government funding will be needed, Mr McGrath said.

"It's about having a very structured approach to it. Some of the mitigation strategies suggested are quite expensive and the local council's ability to finance that without some alternate source of revenue is quite constrained," he said.

However, at the same meeting councillors rejected the recommendation that they allocate funds in future budgets for the implementation of the voluntary purchase scheme of houses that are flood-prone.

"Council still had concerns with the costing to council on those," Councillor Abb McAlister said.

"We'd hate to say we can do it and then eventually when the people go ahead and then they find out we can't pay our part of it.

"We want to look into that a lot more of how it works."

The flood study estimated that each property could set the council back around $500,000, which would be funded jointly by the government and the council, with the council absorbing 25 per cent of that cost.

"So, if we have 12 houses, that's $1.2 million," Cr McAlister said. "But the way the housing market is, you know, they can certainly be more."

Cr McAlister's motion to clean out weeds and vegetation from creeks within the township did go through and he hopes work can get going as soon as possible.

"We need to do that because the mental state and anxiety for the people who have been affected, it's a concern. We need to get that done ASAP," he said.

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