An elderly Mullumbimby grandmother has been warned by Council staff that her regular questions around what flood mitigation works are planned for her street could result in ‘restrictions on your contact with our office’.
Like many other dwellings on the eastern side of Mullumbimby, the Ann Street home of Marie Oliver, 80, was severely flood-damaged in early 2022.
Oliver told The Echo she puts the number of damaged homes at around 100, and has been regularly asking Council – for a year – when drainage works along the length of Ann Street will commence.
Trunk Drain needed
She says a New City Trunk Drain, which existed previously from the CBD to the town’s outskirts heading east, would alleviate the potential for flooding.
In the 2022 floods, residents were inundated by floodwaters from Kings Creek, located to the east of the town.
Oliver told The Echo that unlike some other residents, she was fortunate to have her son repair her flood-damaged home after the floods.
And despite street drains in the area being cleared last Monday by Council, Oliver maintains that the New City Trunk Drain is key to mitigating future floods.
In a March 28 letter, Council staff told Oliver of her continued requests for meetings and updates, ‘We consider this type of behaviour to be inappropriate, and request that it stop’.
Oliver was also told her ‘continual contact could be considered unreasonable persistence, as defined in Council’s Managing Unreasonable Customer Conduct Policy’.
According to that document, ‘unreasonable persistence’ occurs where a ‘customer will not be satisfied with the action taken or the service provided, despite the service or action being properly implemented and exhausted in accordance with the relevant Council policy/policies’.
Yet according to the information provided to Oliver, the works she is requesting do not appear to have been ‘properly implemented and exhausted’.
In the letter from staff member, Heather Sills, ‘existing matters’ are explained for Oliver, and that the drainage works are ‘somewhat complex with Marine and Fisheries permits possibly being required’.
An ‘indicative’ timeframe of October 2023–January 2024 is provided to Oliver, ‘based on available resourcing’.
Council staff refuse to comment
The Echo asked Council staff, ‘Is there any reason why Marine and Fisheries permits are yet to be sought to undertake this drainage work?’
And, ‘Presumably, this means that this work is not a priority for Council? If not, why, given the floodwaters entered the homes of the residents from Kings Creek?’
Esmarelda Davis, Director Corporate Community Services, told The Echo, ‘Council does not generally comment on correspondence with individuals. In relation to your enquiry Council is corresponding directly with the individual’.
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