"Why doesn't Dubbo have the facilities, technology, communication and transport to the same standard as Sydney?"
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That's the question Dubbo councillor Tina Reynolds wants the NSW government to answer after a recommendation from a parliamentary inquiry to move the Rural Fire Service Headquarters to a regional area was rejected.
Cr Reynolds made the comment at the April ordinary meeting of council during a discussion about contacting Dubbo MP Troy Grant and Emergency Services Minister David Elliott on the relocation of the headquarters to Dubbo.
"I have problems with the government actually saying that Dubbo does not have the facilities, technologies or communication," Cr Reynolds said.
"We deserve better. The people of Dubbo deserve better. These are the issues that we as a council, as a collective, need to go back to the government and question why we don't have them.
"I think they come first before we start asking for the rural fire service headquarters to come out to Dubbo."
Deputy mayor Ben Shields said he refuted the government's assertion that Dubbo didn't have the right facilities.
"We can actually access all the state at a moment's notice. Try getting the people from the rural fire service headquarters in Homebush where it's located now to Kingsford Smith or any other airstrip in a matter of minutes like you can at our airport- it's near impossible," he said.
"We have the facilities to do this, the government just doesn't know it."
The recommendation made at the inquiry into the Wambelong fire was for "the Minister for Police and Emergency Services [to] examine the feasibility of relocating the NSW Rural Fire Service headquarters to a rural or regional location". However, it was not supported.
"Facilities, utilities, communications and technological infrastructure, together with close proximity to major transport networks, make the current NSW Rural Fire Service Headquarters ideal," the NSW government's response states.
"The same high standard of infrastructure, security and technology would be difficult to maintain in a regional setting."
NSW RFS may be forced to leave its headquarters in Sydney because of changes to the zoning of the area by the state government.
At this stage the RFS can only remain in its current location until the end of its lease in 2018.