The Blue Mountains is facing a storm clean-up bill of more than $100 million, Blue Mountains mayor Mark Greenhill has warned.
The cost of repairing and future-proofing roads is expected to be in the vicinity of $49 million, with landslip repairs reaching more than $30 million. The bill for fixing embankments and other assets is likely to reach $39 million.
"We could be looking at a figure greater than $100 million to repair and future-proof the city," said the mayor.
"There's no good us repairing roads now... if another rainy summer comes and they get wrecked again. We have to repair well. Those figures sound high because we have no choice but to repair in a way that will be resilient to future weather events."
And the likely repair bill comes with a sobering warning: With other areas in New South Wales suffering worse flood and storm damage than the Blue Mountains, there is no guarantee we will be at the top of any government funding lists.
Cr Greenhill said he will lobby both sides of state and federal politics for funding support, but warned Blue Mountains residents to manage their expectations.
Federal Member for Macquarie Susan Templeman said she would press the issue with the federal government.
"I'm very grateful to the mayor for briefing me on the damage and the repair bill. It's been a brutal few days and has left destruction in its wake," she said.
"This is a huge damage bill for Blue Mountains City Council and they will clearly need significant assistance.
"I'll be raising this with the federal government to ensure that the needs of the region are not lost given the natural disasters sweeping the east coast."
A spokesperson for the National Recovery and Resilience Agency said the federal and state governments have already committed more than $986 million to support the relief and recovery effort.
"The jointly funded Commonwealth-State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements provide funding for the restoration and repair of disaster damaged public infrastructure. This type of assistance is available to 57 disaster-affected local government areas in New South Wales... including Blue Mountains. It allows state agencies and local governments to repair damaged assets in accordance with current building standards," said the spokesperson.
"States are able to seek additional funding through the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements for infrastructure betterment to make public assets more resilient."
The mayor said road repairs in the Blue Mountains will be prioritised by safety and urgency.
"We will be triaging damage. We will be fixing the most urgent and most dangerous [areas] first and then spreading out across the city. Projects we are working on, which are 'nice to have' things, will potentially be delayed while we focus on repairing the basics. That is inescapable. Any politician that tells you there is a magic wand is lying. There isn't."
The repair timeframe will also be determined by factors outside of council's control, like predicted asphalt and contractor shortages across the state. "Areas like Lismore and the Hawkesbury are going to get in first because their roads are much more damaged than ours," said the mayor.
He warned the Blue Mountains is facing an "enormous challenge."
"The amount of damage to council infrastructure from these rains rivals that of the bushfires... This disaster is not unprecedented. I'm sick of hearing that word. This is the third summer in a row we've experienced this. The bushfire summer ended with a massive rain event that smashed infrastructure, then there was last year which smashed infrastructure again, and now this year," he said.
"We've got to get out there and say the honest thing: The climate is changing and our infrastructure that was built years ago, was never built with a contemplation in mind that we would confront weather events like this."
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The mayor ruled out rate rises to pay for the recovery costs but flagged new revenue streams like pay parking for tourists.
"Council will have a strategy of seeking extra revenue without hitting ratepayers," he said. "I will not be supporting a rate rise to cover this infrastructure. We are going to go hard to get government support, and my revenue taskforce is going to look at a fair contribution from those who visit our city, not those who live here."
Councillors voted in January to establish a revenue taskforce to be jointly chaired by the mayor and council CEO, Dr Rosemary Dillon. It will seek to find new revenue sources that do not place any extra burden on ratepayers.
Announcing the plan in January, Dr Dillon said: "Council is already implementing a program of continuous improvement in its business operations and has withstood multiple shocks in recent years. This new taskforce will focus on identifying ways of generating increased revenue to support the expenditure of the city, particularly in the context of likely increased natural disasters."
The mayor said the Blue Mountains has to join the rest of New South Wales in raising revenue from tourists.
"Right now those who live here provide the infrastructure for those who visit here," he said. "There's no other place in NSW where that's the case. You can't go to Bondi and not pay to park. You can't go to Coogee and not pay to park. You can't go to the Opera House and not pay to park. You can't go anywhere and not pay to park except the Blue Mountains, with the exception of Echo Point. And that is something that needs to change."
