Redland City Council has solidified its commitment to protecting its residents from fire risk with work now well underway on 52 of the Fire Management Review’s 56 recommendations. The remaining four recommendations rely on the finalisation of other work.
Council received a status report at Council’s General Meeting today containing a progress update against the recommendations from the report handed down 26 July 2017.
“Council has mailed out 14,000 letters, distributed 3,700 flyers, undertaken extensive advertising and worked closely with the community to encourage the spring cleaning of properties and we have found residents to be very responsive to our communications,” Cr Williams said.
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“Council’s Disaster Management unit has received around 100 calls from residents wanting advice on what they can do to tidy up their properties and it is great to see people taking a proactive approach to their safety during fire season.
“Residents are to be congratulated on getting themselves prepared, including cleaning up their surrounds to mitigate risk.
“One of the city’s strengths is our group of Southern Moreton Bay Islands’ Community Champions, a network of people nominated by residents to work with Council to raise disaster preparedness awareness. We have seen significant improvements, especially on Russell Island, where there’s an obvious reduction in dumped car bodies, litter and overgrown vegetation.
“Council also continues its own program of fire risk mitigation including fuel reduction burns and maintenance like slashing and mowing, and in addition to this has undertaken face-to-face community engagement across the Redlands about what to do to in case of a wildfire,” she said.
Initiatives under way include:
- Simplified disaster management plans for each area in the Redlands.
- Improvements to Council’s interactive online mapping system ‘Red-e-Map’ allowing users to check:
- Their risk of bushfire, flood, storm and landslide hazards
- The locations of evacuation centres and emergency services facilities, neighbourhood safe places and assembly areas for evacuations
- New fire hazard signs across the city so visitors and residents can see the current fire safety rating.
- A new maritime coordinator for the city who will be located in the Local Disaster Coordination Centre during emergencies to coordinate Volunteer Marine Rescue, Surf Lifesaving Queensland and State Emergency Service vessels during a disaster.
Council is also continuing to engage with the community through its ‘Street Speaks’ program of which there has been more than 300 hours of engagement on disaster preparedness already this year.
There will be a joint Council-Emergency Services stand outside Mt Cotton IGA on Saturday morning, 21 October, and an address to the Macleay Island Progress Association on 28 October on disaster preparedness.
Similar displays will be held at Council events in the run up to Christmas including:
- The Mount Cotton Christmas in the Park on 26 November
- The Lighting of the Christmas Tree and Twilight Markets in Bloomfield Street on 1 December
- Christmas by Starlight at the Cleveland Showgrounds on 16 December
The Fire Management Review’s recommendations from its report are covered by six key areas:
- Reducing illegal dumping and hoarding
- Improving the resilience and disaster preparedness of residents
- Ensuring emergency response capacity across multiple agencies
- Reviewing maintenance plans and access trails
- Looking at Local Laws and legislation
- Providing local access to water and fire hydrants
Today’s report meets a commitment by Council to outline its progress against the recommendations within three months of receiving the report on 26 July 2017.
