NORTH Wagga residents will take the council to court over flood levee protections.
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A lawyer acting on behalf of the North Wagga Residents' Association will visit the suburb on Wednesday as residents ramp up the fight for the same protections as other parts of the city.
Wagga City Council received a letter from the association's lawyer last month, reinforcing the residents' wishes of a one-in-100-year levee for the suburb. The council had 14 days to provide a positive response or risk legal ramifications.
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General manager Peter Thompson told The Daily Advertiser that the council accepts the residents' choice to proceed with the threat of legal action and he denied all accusations made against the organisation.
"They accused us of a lot of things, but we have denied the allegations," he said.
The letter to council suggested that "ulterior commercial pecuniary interests" could be influencing the levee decision-making and outcome.
"I confirm that, to my knowledge, there is absolutely no truth whatsoever to any suggestion that decision-making in relation to the floodplain management of North Wagga is being influenced by developers or ulterior commercial pecuniary interests," Mr Thompson said in the council's response to the residents' lawyer.
The council has also been accused of diverting $6.8 million of state government funds for the North Wagga Levee works.
"Similarly, I confirm that, to my knowledge, there is absolutely no truth to the suggestion that the council has been allocated $6.8 million by the state government for North Wagga Levee works. Given this fund does not exist, it follows that there is no mindset to divert it to some other purpose," Mr Thompson said.
In Mr Thompson's response, he said most of the letter's contents did not reflect the facts of what has transpired. "Any suggestion in your letter that council has acted wrongfully is denied," he said.
North Wagga Residents Association treasurer Fiona Ziff said the group was not satisfied with Mr Thompson's response and would pursue the matter in court.
"Council is being negligent and 203 households are suffering while council clearly steers the entire flood management process to suit their own agendas," she said.
Mr Thompson also denied that allegation.