Council are currently working with flood consultants in preparing a draft Flood Study to be referred to the Coastal and Estuaries Management Advisory Committee for review and to provide advice to Council and the consultant.
The draft Flood Study will also be considered by Council before being placed on public exhibition which is anticipated to be in early 2021.
In the Technical project brief for Batemans Bay Urban Creeks Flood Study commissioned by Eurobodalla Shire Council it advises that "Eurobodalla Shire Council (the Council) has received financial support from the State Floodplain Management program managed by the Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) to undertake a flood investigation of seven small creek catchments adjoining urban areas in Batemans Bay."
"The primary objective of the New South Wales (NSW) Government’s Flood Prone Land
Policy is to reduce the impact of flooding and flood liability on individual owners and
occupiers of flood prone property, and to reduce private and public losses resulting from
floods, utilising ecologically positive methods wherever possible." The study will be overseen and guided by the Council and a local steering committee, which may include representatives from key stakeholder and end user groups. The brief clearly states: The overall project provides an understanding of, and information on, flood behaviour and associated risk to inform: relevant government information systems government and strategic decision makers on flood risk the community and key stakeholders on flood risk flood risk management planning for existing and future development emergency management planning for existing and future development, and strategic and development scale land-use planning to manage growth in flood risk decisions on insurance pricing. The study will be guided technically by the Council and a technical committee, which may include representatives from the council and other organisations such as NSW Government
agencies.
Of concern to Surfside residents who have contacted The Beagle the brief states that, depending upon the degree of sophistication of the study, the outputs of the study may inform pricing insurance with Insurers clearly shown as Project End Users.
The brief states "Each of these areas has different user groups, whose needs vary. The key end-user groups that this study aims to support are identified in Table 1.
