Following the bushfires and later Covid-19, Bellingen Shire Council has a dilemma - how to spend the enormous boost to their coffers following those unprecedented grants to assist with the recovery process.
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Bellingen Shire, apart from the upper reaches of the Bellingen River (national park), was not impacted. Not a single dwelling lost, and minor damage to a short section of road in upper Darkwood.
Also to date we've dodged the Covid. Apart from some pain for the hospitality section, with border closures, restrictions and no overseas travel.
However, following the stimulus measures, I have never witnessed so much traffic and pockets bulging with cash.
Supposedly it's the second greatest Depression, but so many businesses are begging to find employees. Online purchases are hitting many small retailers.
Back to council's dilemma. Suddenly they have discovered that word "resilience". So we have a resilience officer, a resilience hub, a team working on a resilience policy.
Dumb Darcey always thought resilience was a case where one emerged from a dark place, a personal or financial disaster, rebuilt and got on with it.
Prevention is better than the cure. Avoidance of the disaster is a superior option to treating the victims. Preparedness ahead of resilience. That old bridge that will be lost next flood, isolating 200 for two years, our hospital even our primary school, and a number of residential areas in danger from that fire.
Let's have action, not bureaucratic policy and planning that remains in a filing cabinet or computer.
Darcey Browning
Darkwood
