Local Councils in NSW Criticised Over Spending of State and Federal Bushfire Recovery Grants

Local councils in some of NSW's worst-affected bushfire areas are being criticised for their plans to spend recovery funding on upgrading sporting fields and preschools untouched by flames.

In the Shoalhaven, where bushfires burnt through 80 per cent of land and destroyed 280 homes, the council has allocated $400,000 of its Federal bushfire recovery grant to upgrade a sporting field.

Questions are also being asked about plans by Bellingen Shire Council on the Mid-North Coast, to spend $50,000 of recovery funding to install an arts trail in Dorrigo, without direct funding to support the community which was hard-hit by bushfires in August last year.