As development pressure has continued it has led to the filing in of low-lying areas. The impact that this is having on existing housing, especially as climate change takes effect through ‘unprecedented’ flooding, has led to a call to ‘pause’ development in flood-prone areas.
‘There’s been a tremendous community reaction to the stories of flooding and “flood-prone” land development,’ Peter Newton, president of the Kingscliff Ratepayers and Progress Association Inc (KRPA) told The Echo.
‘KRPA have called on the minister to, at the least, pause/halt development on flood-prone land until the flood inquiry is complete and findings delivered. We had a huge turnout at our recent monthly Association meeting with lots of visitors and concerned community members. The community of 2487 is clearly, absolutely opposed to further development in these low-lying areas.’
Lindsay Gleeson who has lived in her home in Kingscliff since 1985 says it wasn’t until 2017 that she started to experience flooding at ther property. She told The Echo that there have been ‘a lot of new developments in Kingscliff on low lying areas and that flooding has continued to get worse over time’.
‘There is a new development at the back of Sand Street between the highway and that is a low-lying area. It concerns me that every time they put in a new development they don’t concern themselves where the water is going to go. Every time they do more developments it gets worse. I no longer feel like I’m going to be safe here. None of these flooding events happened untill 2017.
Call to Planning Minister for a ‘pause’
At the beginning of April KRPA wrote to the Planning Minister as well as to Nationals Geoff Provest, Labor’s Justine Elliott and Tweed Mayor Chris Cherry seeking their support and advocacy for a pause on development in ‘low-lying/flood-prone land’ of the Tweed Shire ‘until the completion and delivery of findings of the Independent Flood Inquiry’.
However, while they have received strong support from the Tweed Mayor Chris Cherry, Labor’s Justine Elliot and Nationals member Geoff Provest’s office told KRPA ‘he was going to take it up last week when down for parliament’ they are yet to hear back from the Planning Minister Anthony Roberts.
When The Echo followed up with Mr Provest they were told that he has advised that: ‘The government flood inquiry is currently open and is looking at current and future development on flood-prone land and the way to mitigate the flood effects that we’ve seen recently and this will involve a whole of government response, once the inquiry is closed and has been assessed’.
‘I think they really, really need to put on hold any developments in low-lying areas,’ Ms Gleeson told The Echo.
‘They need to look at what is happening now not what was happening in the past. We need to have a plan in place of how we are going to cope with the flood water and its impacts if this type of development is going to happen. We need to have flood preparedness.’
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