It's dam annoying. So says Springwood Country Club president Phil French who is not sure why there's been a hold up by Blue Mountains Council on enlarging their dam to fight fires, after funding was promised and the project was deemed "critical" by the state government back in January.
"Do state and local governments even talk to each other?" he asked the Gazette.
In the lead up to the last state election, the then acting premier Troy Grant visited the Mountains in January promising $80,000 to extend the golf course's dam to feed the fire planes and "improve readiness and responsiveness to the fires".
The club said they would triple their dam's size in time for this year's bushfire season. But October 1 came and went and no earthworks have started.
Mr French said the Hawkesbury Road club's "various applications have been tangled in the cobweb of Blue Mountains City Council for five months".
But a council spokeswoman denies the delay is their fault, saying they have been liaising with the club but have not received the proper "detailed designs" for the site which council owns. The site needed an "Owner's consent for lodgement of the D/A [development application]". "Council is yet to receive detailed designs from the Springwood Country Club and no D/A has been lodged with council for assessment [a D/A would require owner's consent].
"The plan of management for the Springwood Country Club site was approved by council in August 2015 [and] amended to allow for the expansion of the dam, in-principle," she added.
The Springwood club played a significant role during the October 2013 bushfire emergency, effectively shutting down their course for two weeks to enable helicopters to access their current one-and-a-half megalitre dam near the 9th hole.
When announcing the project Mr Grant said: "It's an area that's been identified by the Rural Fire Service and MPES [The Ministry for Police and Emergency Services].
"The expansion of the dam at Springwood ... [it's] a critical and immediate investment, so that they have the capacity to use helicopters, to provide those facilities where water is most needed," he said.
"It's identified for this season ... we're announcing it today and we'll send the money," Mr Grant told the Gazette.
The club had planned to do preparatory earthworks and get quotes for the engineering of the dam and excavation in March, not taking any chances on starting the work during the last bushfire season.
"We didn't think we would need a D/A [development application] at all," Mr French said.
The club president said after filing their D/A electronically in March they heard nothing for months. When he chased up the matter in May after he had returned from holidays, he was told council had lost their development application and to file another. He was about to send another D/A when council found the original, he told the Gazette.
The club has been told they need to pay $30,000 for a range of costs to the council, including specialist reports. And they have had to alter the proposal to put the dam next to the original dam because it was "on the start of a water course".
"They started talking about geotechnical reports ... to get a consulting engineer that's $10,000 minimum. What we are doing is ... just a pond," Mr French said. To add insult to injury, Mr French said the club sent that unexpected estimate of initial costs for the development application on to the Office of Liquor and Gaming in September and heard nothing for a month. And they are yet to receive any grant money.
"We don't have $30,000 for the works ... and we're worried the grant might run out. It might just evaporate."
Despite the unexpected preparatory expenses of $30,000 he expected the total grant of $80,000 would be sufficient to cover all costs.
Mr French said the club did not even apply for the grant and all the red tape was making them wonder whether it's worth the bother.
After Gazette inquiries, a spokesman for deputy premier Troy Grant said Mr Grant had "directed the Office of Liquor Gaming and Racing expedite this process and resolve any issues as soon as possible".
And the Office of Liquor and Gaming issued a statement to the Gazette late Monday advising that two staff members would meet with the club president in Springwood on Friday to "help expedite the process for a grant payment to be made".
"In recent months, OLGR staff have been in regular contact with the club to seek the necessary information to allow a formal funding agreement to be drafted and signed."
A council spokeswoman said they "will continue to liaise with the Springwood Country Club regarding the detailed design of the dam. Once a detailed design for the expansion of the dam is submitted to council, it will be given our full and urgent attention".
