Shire seeks funds to protect infrastructure against climate change

THE Surf Coast Shire council will lobby its fellow Victorian municipalities to join its efforts to secure state government funding to help protect buildings, facilities and works from the deteriorating affects of climate change.

At their meeting last month, councillors unanimously agreed on the motion they would put forward at the coming Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) state council.

According to the report presented to councillors at the meeting, infrastructure in the shire such as drainage was typically built several decades ago and designed to meet the demands of a more temperate climate.

“With evidence showing extreme weather events are more likely in the future, public infrastructure will come under increased pressure and is likely to fail when these events occur in future years,” the report states.

The report notes the maintenance, repair and upgrade of public assets represents some of the largest cost burdens faced by councils across Victoria, including the Surf Coast Shire.

“Infrastructure is ageing and deterioration of its condition is being accelerated by the impacts of extreme weather. The state government mandated rate cap limits the funding available for infrastructure upgrades and historically councils have mostly borne this cost without recourse to other funding streams.”

The shire’s motion to the June 24 meeting is “That the MAV advocate to the state government to establish a funding stream for local governments to improve the climate resilience of ageing infrastructure that will be impacted by future extreme weather events due to climate change”.

Motions submitted at the meeting are subject to a vote by member councils. The MAV then considers successful motions for follow-up advocacy and action.

For motions to be accepted by MAV, councils need to identify whether the motion has statewide significance to the sector and also relates to one of the sector’s priority issues in the MAV Strategy 2021-25.

Speaking at the shire’s council meeting, Cr Adrian Schonfelder said the shire’s motion “most certainly” had statewide significance as it was an emerging issue for all Victorian councils.

“We have witnessed this in recent times in Anglesea with flooding that has occurred at the Anglesea River, and indeed there was flooding in Lorne at the Erskine River, and I know in the hinterland we had power outages.

“I know every year is different, and I know people have said in the past we’ve had floods and droughts, but it’s the frequency of these events and how extreme they are in nature that are of concern.”

Cr Gary Allan said the recent rainfall in late spring and early summer affected most areas of the shire, but he had personally inspected streets in Lorne where “the drainage system just simply did not cope” and the impact in Anglesea and Aireys Inlet was even worse.