Council one step ahead
BUNDABERG Regional Council has been ordered to investigate the drainage at Moore Park Beach by the Floods Commission of Inquiry final report, which was published yesterday.
But mayor Lorraine Pyefinch said the council had already made the investigations and were working on resolving the issue.
"We have published the findings and the proposed solutions on our website for everyone to look at," she said.
Cr Pyefinch said the findings had been sent to the commission as soon as they were made available.
The recommendation was one of scores of improvements that need to be made statewide, which was released in the commission's report.
The report, at more than 650 pages long, mentions Bundaberg more than 100 times and also recommended councils buy back properties that were in the more severe flood areas.
The Bundaberg council has been vocal about the importance of a buy-back scheme, but only with contributions from state and federal governments.
"That's something that council cannot do on their own," she said.
"It's simply not feasible."
The council, with the help of the other governments, has previously purchased land susceptible to flooding on the corner of Targo and Crofton Sts and turned it into a park.
Cr Pyefinch said she had welcomed the prominence of Bundaberg in the report.
"In a majority of cases when Bundaberg was mentioned it was because we were using best practice," she said.
Cr Pyefinch said she was also pleased to see that not only local governments were criticised.
"My point of view is that the commission has not been able to find any adverse finding against Queensland local governments," she said.
Cr Pyefinch said she felt the report found the services did what they could with the systems they had in place.
