Hawkesbury City Council has voted down a move to establish a disaster welfare assistance point for local residents affected by fire or flood, sparking a petition for a rescission motion.
Councillors voted six votes to five to reject Deputy Mayor Mary Lyons-Buckett's notice of motion to investigate designating an existing council facility to be used in times of emergency as a Disaster Welfare Assistance Point (DWAP) at its November 26 meeting. The motion also requested consideration of the establishment of an Emergency Management Advisory Committee to deal with non-operational emergency management and resilience issues.
A change.org petition was subsequently started by the Hawkesbury Ratepayers and Residents Action group calling for a rescission motion to reverse the resolution, which will be sent to all councillors prior to council's December 10 meeting.
A total of 150 people had signed the petition by Monday afternoon.
