Federal Member for Forde, Bert van Manen, has called out Logan City Council in federal parliament for not doing their maintenance on storm water drains.
Cameron and Alexandra Hoswell of Greenbank were recently told they could no longer have home insurance from their current insurer. When asking why, they were informed due to Logan City Council rezoning, their property was now on a flood plain.
“Cameron and Alexandra were unaffected, just like their neighbours on the surrounding properties, in the floods,” said Mr van Manen from Canberra.
“Their properties had some water over it from the local storm water drain.
“Many of these home owners have lived in their homes for some nearly 40 years and in that time, never have they been affected by flooding.”
In the mail, owners received a letter from Logan City Council that advised them that due to flood risk and updated flood mapping, that their properties were at risk of flooding.
“It is a matter of fact that Logan City Council has quite rightly sort to update their flood mapping as a result of the floods of last year and also the floods of 2017 and I have no issue with the council doing that.
“However, having visited these properties and having grown up in Logan City and experiencing floods in my younger years, can I say that if these properties flood the way they are meant to, will all be in an ark.
“The biggest flood risk for these properties is the fact that Logan City Council have failed to clear and keep clean the storm water drains that run between these properties.
“There is no way on earth that these properties can even be remotely classified as being on a flood plain and being a flood risk.”
It is councils responsibility to update flood maps and to ensure the safety of the city and make sure the same impacts from flooding is not repeated.
“If the council actually took the time to go down there and get their contractors to clean out the storm water drains and remove all the rubbish, dead trees and all sorts of other things, and maybe fix some of their pipes in the process, this would not be an issue for these properties, let alone under any other manner.”
To date, council officers and the councillors have not met with the residents of these properties despite being requested on numerous occasions.
“I can’t understand why Logan City Council is not prepared to go and meet with these residents and address their concerns and more importantly take onboard their responsibility ensuring storm drains and water courses that they are responsible for, and what would be an inexpensive fix of cleaning out these drains and properly maintaining them to prevent any so called risks that they have apparently identified being delt with.”
The nearest river to these properties is the Logan River and due to their location, the river has never been that far in, including the record 1887 flood height.
“I call on Logan City Council to do their job, look after their waterways and storm drains and properly maintain those to reduce any risk to these properties and allow them to get on with their lives unaffected by ridiculous flood mapping.”
