An official plan to guide flood-recovery efforts in Seymour and surrounding areas is now in effect after Mitchell Shire councillors voted unanimously to adopt it.
At last month’s meeting councillors voted unanimously to adopt the 30-page plan, which aims to foster a community-led recovery from record flooding that struck the region in October.
It sets out council’s governance approach to the recovery, as well as short, medium and long-term actions.
Cr Bill Chisholm said while he did not believe the document was ‘ideally worded’, it represented a vision for recovery.
“The most important objective of this plan is to establish a community recovery committee to provide direct input and help shape and drive the community’s recovery,” he said.
“It is really important that people step forward and represent their community and get this recovery fully underway.
“There has been a lot [that has] happened already, but we want to see a community-led recovery.
There have been a lot of effects from the flood, so it’s really important that [the community and local businesses] step up and have their say and be part of this process.”
Cr Rhonda Sanderson said many of the objectives of the first phase of the plan were already complete.
“It’s wonderful to see how many actions have been addressed. That provides the community with some reassurance,” she said.
“It also provides a status on some of the other actions we have at this point in time.
“The key objective … is to form a community flood-recovery committee. Shortly we’ll be going out with advertisements asking people to nominate for the committee.
“The aim is that it will be gender balanced, there will be a mix of ages, a mix of interests and it will represent the whole community fairly.”
Cr Sanderson commended council staff for working to quickly establish the plan.
“It’s a 30-page document which has been put together very well in a very short space of time by staff who have a million things on their minds as our flood-recovery process has been happening,” she said.
“They’ve worked tirelessly for months, and I really appreciate the work they’ve put into this.”
People can view the flood recovery plan in the minutes of council’s February meeting at cdn.mitchellshire.vic.gov.au/agendas-minutes/attachments/Adovcacy-and-Communities.pdf.
• Also at last month’s council meeting, Cr Sanderson gave a notice of motion to council officers to prepare a brief report regarding the Bureau Of Meteorology river height level monitoring system, which collects data on waterways in catchments flowing into the Seymour area.
Cr Sanderson asked that the report included the location of monitors, size of catchments, names of organisations that are responsible for maintenance of the monitors and the checking of river height monitors to ensure their accuracy.
She said the Seymour Community was advised that flood levels on October 13 and 14, 2022, would peak at 6.2 metres, but the actual flood level reached 8.23 metres.
Cr Sanderson said in preparing for future storm/flood events, it would be useful for council, and other agencies, to understand how the system worked and what could have occurred in October to underestimate the peak heights.
