Lismore City Council’s finances are getting a welcome boost with the Federal and State Governments agreeing to pay for the remediation of the contaminated Beardow St landslip.

Page Federal MP Kevin Hogan this morning announced the council would receive $2.4 million for the Lismore Heights project, which has already resumed.

“This is a great outcome for an ongoing issue since the damage was done by Cyclone Debbie in 2017,” said Mr Hogan, who was joined at the announcement by the council’s executive director of infrastructure services Gary Murphy and the owner of the adjoining land, Ken Allport.

“Lismore City Council came to me looking for financial help for the remediation work. That is why the Federal Government has ensured eligible reconstruction costs will be funded under the joint Commonwealth-State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements.

“This means the hazardous materials exposed by the landslip can be safely removed and disposed, and the road rebuilt allowing residents to once again access their homes.”

Work to remove the contaminated soil from the landslip is already underway. PHOTO: Will Jackson.

Mr Murphy said that because the council had already included the cost of the project in its budgeting, the $2.4 million would effectively be added to the council’s bottom line. 

An estimated 10,000 to 12,000 cubic metres of contaminated material will be removed via Mr Allport’s land below the landslip and transported to the closest legal disposal site at Ipswich in Queensland over about five weeks.

The reconstruction of the road and remediation of the land to residential standards is expected to take another approximately seven weeks.

The council had initiated proceedings in the Land and Environment Court after Mr Allport denied the council access to the site earlier this month.

However, Mr Murphy said that while the matter was still before the court, Mr Allport had now agreed to allow the work to proceed.

“It's just essentially access and some adjustment to the work method and agreement with Ken on what our method of remediation is and what our method of accessing the site is,” he said.

There would be no sifting, sieving or further treatment of the material on site, he said.

“There's still a conversation taking place with Ken and there's been no agreement on compensation,” he added.

Mr Murphy said the work was expected to be completed before July 1 when a new waste levy comes into effect in Queensland, avoiding a potential extra cost of up to $2 million in fees to ratepayers.

The source of the contamination was still “unclear”, he added.

”The source of the material, whilst there's been some discussions, council isn't certain as to its origins,” he said.

Mr Allport said the process had been “not real nice”.

“Stressful, very stressful,” he said. “I don't like fighting with anyone, but anyway, we didn't have much option.”

However, he said he now felt relieved that work was underway.

“If everything's done properly, I'll be happy,” he said.