Wollongong Council unanimously adopted its Climate Change Adaptation Plan at Monday night’s meeting.

Former Wollongong councillor and Illawarra Green George Takacs spoke to the council at the beginning of its meeting, urging them to see the plan as the starting point, rather than an end point. “Council must integrate climate change adaptation into everything it does otherwise it runs the risk of adapting on one and maladapting on the other.”

Greens councillor Mithra Cox said she was encouraged by the council’s adoption of the plan, but she said climate change was an issue which is already causing havoc across the country. “The report is bleak, unambiguous and terrifying,” Cr Cox said.

 

Wollongong Mayor Gordon Bradbery pushed through a motion to pressure building sites to better manage sediment and run-off, especially during rain events. Wombarra Vista townhouse construction site was fined $8000 in accordance with NSW Government‘s Protection of the Environment Operations Act, the maximum penalty. Councillor Cath Blakey said the sanction was “pretty cheap” and asked for Council to write to the Environment Minister Matt Kean to seek an increase in the penalty that was “appropriate to the community’s expectation of seriousness”.  The mayor agreed with Cr Blakey and the motion was unanimously passed.

 

Story by Dylan Arvela in the Daily Telegraph, 15 March 2022.