A bushfire recovery taskforce has been established by MidCoast Council to work with members of the community who lost property during last year's fire season.
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The taskforce, which will focus on assisting property owners navigate the rebuilding process, includes building, environmental health and waste specialists.
MidCoast Council general manager, Adrian Panuccio said the team was working closely together to assist in both the clean-up and development application (DA) process.
"We have established this taskforce to be able to support those in our community who are most in need at this time," Mr Panuccio said.
The rebuilding efforts also were supported by a decision to waive all DA, construction certificate, complying development and septic system fees for those properties assessed as destroyed by the Rural Fire Service's building impact assessment team, he said.
Liveable communities director, Paul De Szell, said the process was working well, with a number of recent applications for the rebuilding of fire affected properties assessed and finalised within a day.
"Of course, not every application is going to be that straightforward; it will depend on a range of factors," he said.
"However we will process applications as quickly as we can and offer advice to help navigate the system."
By directing applications for fire impacted members of the community to the taskforce, this also ensures the regular development application process is not burdened with the extra work created by the fire rebuilds.
We have established this taskforce to be able to support those in our community who are most in need at this time.
- Adrian Panuccio
Mr De Szell said this meant any other members of the community lodging DAs could be assured their applications were not being held up as a result of the extra volume of applications generated by the bushfires, and would continue to be assessed and dealt with in the usual way.
"We are committed to supporting our community to rebuild their lives after the devastation of the bushfires and supporting them with the rebuilding process is one way we can do this."
This support has extended to the adoption of a temporary accommodation policy, which allows for a caravan, or registered or unregistered moveable dwelling to be used on a property once a development consent, construction certificate or complying development certificate is approved for the property.
Those who do need to rebuild after the fire are encouraged to contact council to discuss their application prior to lodging to ensure the process runs as smoothly as possible.
Council also was working with the Taree Lions and Rotary clubs to support community recovery through a series of events being held in the impacted communities to provide support and advice.
A list of upcoming events and a range of information to support recovery can be found on council website recovery page.
