Open letter to the Middleton Community

Dear Middleton Community,

I wanted to reflect on the Community meeting held tonight on the Middleton Stormwater event of 12 November 2022.

Firstly, I can see the hurt and angst in the room, the stormwater event came without warning and destroyed property, livelihoods and left an emotional scar. I want to provide greater assistance where I can as a Middleton Community Member and as the CEO of Alexandrina Council.

Following the event Council focused on the Council infrastructure and clean up, opening up roads, clearing away debris, and making the place safe. We still have much more to do. I acknowledge that our initial focus has been on the infrastructure with over $3 million in damages and clean up. After tonight’s meeting I feel Council’s focus now needs to shift from Infrastructure to the People, the community we serve.

The Community want to know what happened, what can be done to prevent it from occurring again and what lessons were learned from the experience to better prepare for future events.

There were multiple entities involved in the event and aftermath including the lead agency State Emergency Services (SES), Police, State Department of Infrastructure and Transport (Road, Rail and Bridges), Department of Environment and Water, Private Landowners and Alexandrina Council.

I have committed to coordinating a response from the various entities on the questions raised and will provide a response within the next seven days. Following that I will ensure the communication continues to flow throughout the recovery process.

There were frustrations from the Community with multiple government agencies all discussing their own and each other’s various components that they are responsible for including roads, bridges, creek lines, railway lines, housing, wellbeing and clean up. I felt there was a need for one community leader to take responsibility for coordinating all components regardless of ownership. With Council being the closest tier of government to the Community, I want myself and Alexandrina Council to be at the forefront of that Community Leadership.

Alexandrina Council is part of the Adelaide Hills, Fleurieu and Kangaroo Island Zone Emergency Management Committee. As the Chair of this Committee, the next meeting will be dedicated to better defining the roles and responsibilities of each of these entities, the Middleton event and how working together we can make improvements for the future.

There was talk about Councils that have exceled at disaster recovery, I want Alexandrina Council to be one of those Councils.

I listened and learned tonight and now it is the time for recovery action. I look forward to working closely with the Community on this process and thank them for driving this meeting to occur.

Regards,

Nigel Morris

Chief Executive Officer