SHOALHAVEN City Council Infrastructure planning manager Martin Upitis said the Goulds had been informed a detention basin would be built alongside their property.
“According to staff the Goulds were told verbally that this structure was part of the staged work that started with the piping of Raglan Street 18 months ago,” he said.
“The design work for this was around when the other drainage work was done.
“I don’t know if it’s a defence but staff believe the verbal notification was enough under the engagement policy.”
Although he admitted nothing was done in writing, and said “in hindsight things could have been done better”.
“The work has been done in two stages,” he said.
The structure in question is a detention basin – a mounded structure that goes on top of the pipes, and is a standard piece of equipment placed around drainage structures.
The structure is designed to protect the housing further down the street from flooding and reduce the frequency of flooding on Orient Point Road and further down Raglan Street.
“Hopefully they can tolerate it and be helping the community further downstream,” he said.
“The area is going to be landscaped and planted with shrubs.
“Aesthetically it should be bearable.
“By the time it gets grass over it and shrubs grow up it will look tidier than what was there before.”
The unmade section of Raglan Street has not been rezoned or changed; it is one of kilometres of marked but unmade roads throughout the district.
“It has not been made into a reserve or a drainage reserve, but we need to put structures such as this in place where they are needed,” Mr Upitis said.
“The drainage engineers say more work is planned to be done in the Park Row area to reduce the amount of water from the reserve that will be flowing down Raglan Street, so that should stop any possible flooding of their property.
“There is another stage of the project to go and that should address problems up there.”
Mr Upitis said the Goulds’ complaints had also been passed onto Shoalhaven Mayor Joanna Gash.