Is it "Drainage Mismanagement" or "Flood"
A flood is when heavy rainfall causes an overflow of a natural and or man made drainage system.
Newcastle drains are constructed to design standards to cope with all but unusual events.
When drains are full of tree roots, pipes are broken, floodgates dont work, leaves block drain entry points and silt and debris chokes the system the resultant "flood" is mismanagement.
The Management Plan must not hide behind the notion of "flood" and get on with ther real task of making the drainage system effective.
This online discussion forum has concluded. You can still browse the site but the discussion area will no longer accept new comments or votes.
Get Real Comment 1 9 May 2008, 6:45 AM
The June floods last year were certainly a very unusual event, but a similar event can and will most likely happen again one day.
The question is whether Council is going to learn anything from this disaster, or whether they will just write it off as an unsual event and do nothing about it at all.
Council should at least carry out a detailed study of where the mayor drainage bottlenecks were.
The huge volume of water from King Street could not get out across Hunter Street, the Railway Line and Honeysuckle Drive, because there is no overflow path at all on the harbour side of Honeysuckle Drive.
Maybe the water levels did not have to rise as much in King St, Hunter St and Honeysuckle drive, if there had been a proper overland flowpath all the way down to the harbour.
Are there any drainage engineers looking at these problems, or is that the responsibility of the Hunter Development Corporation ?
The June floods last year were certainly a very unusual event, but a similar event can and will most likely happen again one day. The question is whether Council is going to learn anything from this disaster, or whether they will just write it off as an unsual event and do nothing about it at all.Council
more…
pony Comment 1.1 13 May 2008, 6:26 PM
Get Real, is " Council should at least carry out a detailed study of where the MAYOR drainage bottlenecks were" a Freudian Slip?
It gave me a laugh, alongside the farce that is the line spun to the public that the drainage extra in last years budget was to improve drainage. how many overheads were allocated to these projects?
ie how much was actually spent and how much of cost allocated was Activity Based Costing surcharges? ie contribution to Corporate Unallocated? surcharegesmarginal expoenditure
pony Comment 1.1.1 14 May 2008, 1:02 PM
I agree
pony Comment 1.1.1.1 14 May 2008, 1:02 PM
i agree too
pony Comment 1.1.1.1.1 14 May 2008, 1:03 PM
so do I
pony Comment 1.1.1.1.1.1 14 May 2008, 1:06 PM
do all these count for the Ombudsman's purpose as individual submission?
Also admin, can you explain why you changed my name from Smack the Pony? it was one of my favourite BBC shows of all times and my nickname at the Council. A wonderful farce. Only bettered by "Yes Minister".
matt Comment 1.1.1.1.1.1.1 14 May 2008, 7:43 PM
Hi Pony (If I can call you that!)
There are a few good issues you have raised here. Firstly, because this forum is annonymous it is more like a public meeting than a formal submission. This means it is an opportunity to dicuss with other members of the forum what you would like to see in Council's Management Plan and council will hear you. This is obviously a pretty new approach to trying to hear from more of the community but one that we think will become commonplace in time. In fact we see a time when communities will demand to know why they are not being given the opportunity to have a say online.
As for the name - I think I remember that show now you mention it. However, we judged the name to be offensive based on a complaint from another user. As I explained in my email to you we will give you another name of your choice if you prefer. We understand that you had no intention to offend.
Finally, its great to see your input on the site, keep the comments coming, but please refrain from posting duplicate comments (like the ones above) as our moderation rules dictate that these are spam and are deleted. It doesnt help the flow of the site.
I will leave the ones above as you are clearly trying to illustrate a point.
Cheers ADMIN
Hi Pony (If I can call you that!)There are a few good issues you have raised here. Firstly, because this forum is annonymous it is more like a public meeting than a formal submission. This means it is an opportunity to dicuss with other members of the forum what you would like to see in Council's Management
more…
Bigfeller Comment 1.2 13 May 2008, 11:42 PM
Get Real the events last June were certainly unusual however much of the "flooding" was normal. For example Cottage Creek on Anzac day was a banker and if the tide had been different or a container blocked the drain it could have been another drainage disaster. The people of Cooks Hill have had drainage disasters several times since June.
Floods are not caused by drains blocked by tree roots, shopping trollies, containers and a host of other reasons.
Councillors need to demand that Council officers explain why the drains were not capable of meeting the drainage needs.
This Management Plan seeks to fund the replacement of most of the tidal flood gates that did not work last June! Why were they not maintained on a routine basis?
Get Real the events last June were certainly unusual however much of the "flooding" was normal. For example Cottage Creek on Anzac day was a banker and if the tide had been different or a container blocked the drain it could have been another drainage disaster. The people of Cooks Hill have had drainage
more…
Your Concious Comment 1.3 21 May 2008, 4:47 PM
I have to disagree with you on that one, Newcastle storm water drainage system was made for the old Newcastle, with all these new Estates going up all over the place they did not take that into consideration the overflow from these new Estates into the drainage system as it was made for only so much water could flow through, tell me how many drains have you seen being built with these new Estates ???? I have seen pipe works, no storm water drains being built. if you look at it most of the flooding was around all the areas that the drains are.... Time to start building drains for these Estates to catch the overflow, plus a substantial amount of rain over a short period has brought this problem to their attention... Time to act, not think about it.
I have to disagree with you on that one, Newcastle storm water drainage system was made for the old Newcastle, with all these new Estates going up all over the place they did not take that into consideration the overflow from these new Estates into the drainage system as it was made for only so much
more…
Bigfeller Comment 2 20 May 2008, 11:00 PM
When Councillors vote to adopt the Management Plan they should remember the need for considerable infrastructure funds just to catch up the backlog identified by Percy Allen.
If Council did not have a backlog on drainage because of their mismanagement then the drains may not have overflowed causing the "flood"
Your Concious Comment 2.1 22 May 2008, 6:29 PM
Which councils in australia don't have a backlog ???
only the ones with less than 300 people living in their towns, I have never in my life have seen any maintinance on the drainage system within Newcastle, can you say you have ??
Your Concious Comment 3 25 May 2008, 5:16 PM
Drainage is the main concern with in this city, still to date, there are still repairs to be done from june storms which should been repaired many many months ago,ie: fencing around drains in the outer suburbs(Wallsend, Jesmond area) Is their a team of workers that should be rectifying these problems ???? as they are a real danger & someone will get hurt.... if not, why don't they use, the Work For The Dole Schemes to rectify these problems, as this would be done at a cheaper rate as well as give the people doing these schemes, experience & skills to rejoin the workforce... this is where you will save on cost utilising theses services... remember the word TEAMWORK !!!
Drainage is the main concern with in this city, still to date, there are still repairs to be done from june storms which should been repaired many many months ago,ie: fencing around drains in the outer suburbs(Wallsend, Jesmond area) Is their a team of workers that should be rectifying these problems
more…