Through its Local Emergency Management Committee, Federation Council is to discuss a proposal of community information forums to be held, to explain to the community what mechanisms and arrangements are in place for emergencies.
The information forums will include relevant state agencies and council representatives.
Council’s impending action follows a successful Notice of Motion from Cr Sally Hughes at council’s September meeting that council report on its current state of planning for emergencies particularly related to possible fires, heat waves and blackouts in the coming months.
At council’s latest monthly meeting on October 31, General Manager Adrian Butler advised that heatwaves and blackouts are not categorised as emergencies.
“However, council has a project to develop a Climate Adaptation Plan and areas such as these should form part of this, and the interested community group would be considered a great assistance in this area,” he said.
“Council is also working with RAMJO on a NSW and Federal Government Disaster Readiness Plan and also separately with Berrigan, Murray River, Edward River and Murrumbidgee Councils on NSW Government Drought Preparedness plans.”
Mr Butler said further information will be shared with council as these plans develop and community and stakeholder engagement is already occurring on these plans.
Cr Hughes welcomed the recommendation to conduct community information forums with the relevant agencies which she said, “will provide our community with information and allow them the opportunity to ask questions and get answers around this topic”.
“Councils play a vital role in raising awareness of and preparing for future crises,” Cr Hughes said. “Research shows that communities that are prepared have better recovery than those who are not.
“According to the NSW Reconstruction Authority many NSW residents live in disaster-prone areas and nearly all communities across the state have experienced a disaster since 2019.
“This is an issue we need to be proactive with to ensure our community has the tools at hand to be prepared and understand the risks. It is also important that the council has plans in place in the event that we are faced with a bushfire or any other disaster.”
Councils in NSW operate under the Emergency Management Framework set out by the NSW Government. The legislation that governs this is the State Emergency & Rescue Management Act 1989 (NSW) - Level 4 Under the Act, the Premier has the ability to declare that a ‘state of emergency’ exists in the whole or part of NSW when there is significant and widespread danger to life and or property in the state.
The state is broken into regions and each council has a role to establish and maintain a Local Emergency Management Plan (LEMP) and Committee (LEMC) of which state agencies who have roles to play in different types of emergencies, such as the Rural Fire Service for fires, the State Emergency Service for floods, all contribute to the LEMC.