Upper Lachlan Shire Council says it's battling to keep up with repairs following seven natural disasters in two years.
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These have included bushfires and successive flooding that have extensively damaged roads and other infrastructure.
The council's infrastructure director Glenn Lacey said the sheer amount of damage had severely impacted the repair schedule and all but put new works on hold.
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"We are spending most of our time and money putting out spot fires when we know there is a lot more to be done," he said.
"In many cases, we haven't been able to enact repairs for some of the older disasters, or re-assess after repairs have been made."
His comments came after a Taralga resident aired grievances this week about the delays and standard of repairs in and around the village. A petition calling for improved service is circulating and the Progress Association is discussing the issue at a meeting on Thursday.
Mr Lacey said Hillcrest Rd, 7.5km south of Taralga, was an example of repeated flood damage.
"Ordinarily, we grade the road once a year," he said.
"We last graded it in September, 2021 and have scheduled to do it again (this month). The February, 2020 flooding caused damage to the road that was repaired and material replaced.
"In October, 2021 another rain event caused more flooding, and this was again repaired and material replaced. Further flooding followed in December, 2021 and January, 2022, both causing more damage and the washing away of more materials. We had staff out there at weekends enacting temporary fixes.
"I know we've received criticism for applying temporary fixes. But the issue is that this is a scene playing out at many places across the Shire simultaneously. We don't want to keep going out and re-fixing repairs, or wasting materials, but our priority is to get these damaged areas up to a trafficable level as quickly as possible across many areas at once."
"We truly need a period without rain so that we can get around to longer lasting fixes."
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Since January 2020 to now, the following NSW disasters have been declared:
- January 2020 - bushfires;
- February 2020 - storms and floods;
- August 2020 - storms and floods;
- October 2020 - floods;
- November 2020 - storms;
- March 2021 - storms;
- July/August 2021 - storms.
Mr Lacey said the council had received funding for the first four disasters, but there was often a significant delay in receiving compensation from a state and federally funded program. During this time, the council paid the money. The works must be signed off before Resilience NSW distributes the funding.
"We are very thankful for the recovery funding we get, and for the continued representation on our behalves by our local members, Wendy Tuckerman and Angus Taylor. But it's becoming much harder to get the full amount to cover the damage done," Mr Lacey said.
"Some of these roads are near the end of their lives and complete repairs may now be in order ahead of our works schedule, but not always within the scope of disaster recovery funding."
Mr Lacey said the council would continue to triage repairs and do it's best to allocate its "finite resources" across 2,000 km of road. However he stressed the task would be easier without further disasters.
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