Cairns Regional Council crews are ramping up their efforts to restore public areas to the level the community has come to expect.
Scheduled maintenance and beautification programs have been placed under significant pressure since the December floods, with resources and personnel redeployed to high priority recovery areas.
This redeployment, along with the annual Christmas/New Year mandatory shutdown period, coupled with fatigue and health safety management due to the extreme heat, has impacted regular maintenance.
Cairns CEO Mica Martin has assured residents that every effort was being made to restore public amenity to the levels the community has come to expect.
“Our Council teams take great pride in the presentation of their respective areas, and they are trying desperately to catch up in very challenging conditions,” Ms Martin said.
“In response to the devastation left by ex-Tropical Cyclone jasper and the flooding, we redeployed regular maintained crews to priority areas, such as assisting with the kerbside rubbish pick up in flood impacted areas as well as ensuring roads and drains were cleared quickly, and access for residents across Cairns was restored.
“This meant that regular maintenance was suspended for a short period.
“We are now working to get on top of our beautification and maintenance works.
“We thank the community for their patience, and encourage residents to report any issues they might see, such as fallen trees or large potholes, to Council via the website, using the My Cairns app, or by calling customer service (1300 69 22 47).”
