Lismore's Flood Risk Management Plan (FRMP) is a critical document that covers all elements of future floods, including flood mitigation, escape routes, and emergency accommodation.

The draft FRMP was put on public display for six weeks, ending July 8, via council's Your Say website page. Of the 203 times the draft document was downloaded, 17 unique submissions were received, including emails.

There were two noticeable recommendations to add to the FRMP, which included engineering solutions and nature-based solutions for flood mitigation.

No new structural mitigation solutions, aside from small local solutions at East Lismore, will be investigated further until the final CSIRO report is handed down in 2025 and flood mitigation scenarios are tested following its release.

It was noted that nature-based solutions can reduce flood waters but, in some circumstances, can increase flood peaks. Debris from trees can cause the water to act like a dam, depending on the size of the flood event. The recommendation was that any proposed solution should include flood modelling.

Flood escape routes proved the most controversial and discussed item on the FRMP at yesterday's meeting.

The flood routes that the Flood Risk Management Committee had agreed on were different to what the NSW SES had proposed. Some on the committee stated that the map in the FRMP contradicted the SES map which was going to confuse the public. An escape route along Dunoon Road was one example mentioned.

The result was that the plan was endorsed with the removal of the flood route table, which will be reinserted following a meeting and agreement with the SES.

The railway embankment parallel to Kyogle Road has long been discussed in the community as an option for flood mitigation. Lismore City Council's consulting company, Engeny, was asked to model the flood impact if a 500-metre section was removed and lowering part of Kyogle Road.

Three scenarios were tested with water flowing from Leycester Creek and Wilsons River in varying amounts, that is 5% (1 in 20-year flood) Leycester Creek and 10% (1 in 10-year flood) Wilsons River, 1% (1 in 100-year flood) Leycester Creek and 5% Wilsons River and 0.2% (1 in 500-year flood) Leycester Creek and 1% Wilsons River.

The results show that embankment removal, both including and excluding the lowering of Kyogle Road, has no significant positive impact on flood mitigation under the range of flood scenarios tested.

Jamie Simmonds and Karen McPaul from the NSW Reconstruction Authority provided an update on the Resilient Homes Program and the Resilient Lands Program.

There were some impressive statistics mentioned, such as 83% of the House Buyback Offers have been accepted, that forty plus homeowners will relocate their homes to private land and 50 homeowners have gifted their homes, some of which will be available for sale to the public.

The NSWRA has begun to demolish houses that have been deemed unsalvageable, so you will see more activity in this space at certain areas around Lismore CBD and North Lismore.

In some good news for Lismore City Council, it was confirmed that the NSWRA will pay rates on all House Buyback Properties until their future use has been decided. The RA will also continue to maintain the vacant blocks of land.

This was the final meeting of the Flood Risk Management Committee until after the September 14 Local Council Elections, where new councillors will be offered to join the committee. Councillors (Cr) Vanessa Ekins and Elly Bird were thanked for their time and their contribution to the committee, although Cr Bird has not declared her intentions for the upcoming elections.