March storm event declared natural disaster

Published on Wednesday, 9 June 2021 at 10:47:16 AM

March storm event declared natural disaster.  

Financial assistance will be given to the Shire of Northam following severe flash flooding in the region in March. This is being provided through the Commonwealth-State Disaster Recovery Funding and will assist with clean-up operations from fallen trees and restore damaged road infrastructure.

While this support is welcomed, the scale of the work remains a challenge for the Shire. The estimated cost of clean-up and repair is in the millions which exemplifies the substantial damage incurred. It has taken considerable time for the damage assessment to be undertaken and submitted to the relevant authorities, which in itself is a big task. While the assessment was being undertaken the Shire was focused on addressing the most critical works, permitted under the WANDRA funding guidelines.

With funding now approved, we are in a position to start the process for addressing the broader work required. However due to the legislative framework this will take time. Unlike the private sector we cannot simply go out and give work to various contractors to ‘get the job done’. Given the scale of the works we are required to develop detailed tender documents, call for tenders, assess them and make an appointment via Full Council – this will take up to two months. We will then hand the projects over the contractors to schedule the works, this may mean we are unable to address some issues until late in 2021. We understand this is frustrating for those impacted, however this was a significant event and it will take considerable time to remediate.

We thank you for your patience, please be assured we are working as quickly as possible to address all concerns.

Affected Roads