AFTER more than six years of studies and reports, Wallsend business owners and residents have grown increasingly frustrated at the lack of work to reduce the town’s flood risks.
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But while locals shudder every time it rains, Newcastle City Council is preparing to go to tender for another study.
The city has a NSW Floodplain Management Program grant to assess the risk to buildings in Wallsend during a flash flood.
The council said yesterday this work was necessary and ‘‘the final piece of the puzzle that we need before starting to install flood protection works in Wallsend’’.
Max McCorkell, who owns 4Your Home on Nelson Street and is the president of the Wallsend Town Business Association, said he couldn’t understand why another study was needed.
‘‘We’ve had flood studies going back to 2005, 2006,’’ Mr McCorkell said.
‘‘Wallsend would be better off if we took the grant money down to the Wallsend RSL and put it through the pokies to see if we could get $6million for some real works.’’
Mr McCorkell wants the city to spend $6million to deepen a culvert beneath Minmi Road, which he said would divert much of the water that flowed towards the town during recent major flood events.
Council infrastructure manager John Johnston said protecting the area against the risk of floods was ‘‘not just a simple matter of building a levee, enlarging stormwater channels or widening bridges’’.
“Controlling the natural flow of water in the event of a flood is a complex science as the water eventually has to end up somewhere,’’ Mr Johnston said.
‘‘Council doesn’t want to initiate work that might solve a problem in one area of the suburb, but then create a whole new set of problems in another area.’’
Mr Johnston said the council might struggle to secure future funding without such a detailed study, which will be carried out over about 12 months.
But after years of similar studies, the prospect of another year without physical work grates with residents.
In 2006, the council produced a report that warned of dire consequences at Wallsend, which is located at a notorious choke-point of the Ironbark Creek.
That study said waters could rise to several metres deep in less than half an hour, cars could be washed away and buildings could collapse.
Less than a year later, the Pasha Bulker flood hit and many of those fears were realised.
Businesses left Wallsend and have not returned.
