Pittwater Life August 2018 Issue

News
Continued from page 17
planning and on understanding
risk management. Clearly
the Panel lacked the necessary
expertise in risk management.”
Adjacent properties and
properties downstream are
those that may suffer, he said.
“The Panel should have insisted
on an independent ‘run’
on the existing, sophisticated,
computer-based flood model
for Warriewood Valley in order
to properly asses the impacts,”
he continued.
“The Flood model has been
developed and refined over
more than two decades and
clearly shows the site as being
significantly impacted. It would
have been a simple matter to rerun
it to properly assess the potential
impacts of the proposed
development on both the site
in question and surrounding
properties. To not insist on the
proper, and independent, use of
the existing flood modelling is
simply incomprehensible.”
Mr Gordon said there was a
time when there was no flood
insurance and the individuals
impacted by floods had to simply
“wear” the consequences.
HISTORY OF FLOODING: The
Macpherson Street site in 2013
(above) and a long-time resident’s
photo of Warriewood flooding in
the 1940s (right).
“Nowadays the community
ends up wearing the costs of
disasters whether that be
through disaster relief funds
from the State and Federal
Government – which after all
are funded through our taxes –
or from Council funds, funded
through our rates, or through
insurance,” he said.
“Many people don’t realise
that since the insurance industry
introduced flood insurance
(under political pressure), both
the industry and government
realised that the burden of
flood insurance premiums
were often too great on the
individuals most impacted and
so in order to offset this, the
burden has been spread over
many properties.
“That is, many of the community
are actually subsidising
the insurance premiums
of flood prone properties. So
when your taxes, council rates
and insurance premiums rise
in the future you can thank the
Photo: Angus Gordon & supplied
Panel members for doing their
bit to intensify development
that puts lives and property
in harm’s way in Warriewood
Valley, and drains money out of
your hip pocket.”
The Planning Panel’s meeting
lasted 31 minutes. Its determination
noted members made
just one site inspection – in
April 2017, before the bridge
was constructed.
It noted 19 written
submissions
– but tellingly in
its ‘Reasons For
Decision’ it stated
“there were no
speakers from the
community at the
public meeting”.
This drew the ire
of Mayor Michael
Regan, who told Pittwater Life:
“I understand there were very
few community members in attendance
for the Panel meeting.
I’m concerned that there is not
enough advice or information
making its way to our community
before the Panel makes
important decisions – and why
it seems that a verbal submission
is given more weight than
a written one.”
18 AUGUST 2018
The Local Voice Since 1991