DEAR News Of The Area
I REMEMBER assessing the flood damage to my office in the1996 floods, and taking my car to the panel beaters, pockmarked by hail in 2013.
Minor things if compared to people losing their homes in the Lismore floods.
Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time, and it is essential that our Council takes it seriously. Climate action is not an optional extra competing for money with Council’s financial bottom line.
Sure, Council will make significant cost savings by pretending there is no climate emergency. However these savings will go up in a puff of smoke, when major flooding means we need to replace whole roads rather than filling pot holes. Leave alone the cost of disaster relief, repairing electrical and water infrastructure and restoring agricultural land devastated by fires.
Council seems to be shifting the cost of climate inaction from the general Council budget to individual rate payers. These are the people whose homes and businesses are damaged by floods, fire or hail and whose insurance premiums go through the roof – if they still have one.
And ask the people of Lismore who know what it is like to be without water or electricity for a prolonged period of time.
Let us hope Council, under the leadership of Mayor Nikki Williams, will reconsider their decision and do the right thing by the people of Coffs Harbour.
Regards,
Angela Floer,
Coffs Harbour.
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