Lismore City councillors voted to write to the NSW Reconstruction Authority (NSW RA) asking to ‘investigate a partnership for the sale of salvaged materials from buyback properties condemned for demolition to the community’.
Councillor Harper Dalton-Earls brought the motion to Tuesday’s LCC meeting and most councillors came out in support of the motion.
Cr Dalton-Earls highlighted the unique elements of Lismore’s historic houses as well as the quality of the product compared to modern doors, windows etc.
Cr Adam Guise spoke in favour of the motion saying it was ‘long overdue’ highligting that the NSW RA had failed to acquire land and relocate these historic buildings as they had originally promised.
‘Here we are three years on, and we have a state minister sicing the demolition companies onto the communities of Lismore to demolish their houses, and it’s a real tragedy,’ said Cr Guise.
‘It’s a real tragedy in our community that prides itself on a fair flood recovery, that looks after the most vulnerable, that prides itself on a circular economy strategy – where we’ve pretended that we would recycle, reuse, avoid sending things to waste. Yet here we are allowing this travesty to happen – and bespoke, 100-year-old hardwood homes are being sent to an incinerator in Queensland. It’s a travesty, and it has to stop…
‘This is a great start, but it’s three years too late, and what I’ve said from day one is we need to acquire land to enable relocations. Land is the expense here, and you might talk about it’s expensive to salvage or move houses, but boy, when you’ve seen the price tag for demolishing them, turning them into splinters, trucking them up the highway to burn an incinerator at $100,000 a pop? Well, that’s an expensive, stupid, and environmentally destructive process. We’ve got to get smarter about it.’
The motion was ultimately supported by all other council members apart from Big Rob.
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