My name is Brent Whiter and I am a permanent resident of Tura Beach and a small business owner in the same town for the last 35 years.

Wikipedia gives the definition of a village "as a permanent cluster of human settlement or community in a rural area, with a population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand people".

Our village has grown in the last 35 years from 900 people to 3000 people with 1551 dwellings (ABS Census 2016).

In this bushfire season we have had fires burning around our locale from all sides, north, west and south. My 94-year-old bed-bound mother resides in our local nursing home, and although the building is built to current standards, had to endure the dislocation with all other nursing home residents recently when they were evacuated to Merimbula for safety as we were told by our local authorities that Tura Beach was not defendable, that the towns of Bega and Merimbula would be defended.

This got me to thinking and talking amongst my customers. I have read that the NSW RFS is responsible for fire protection in 95% of the land area of NSW. We think now is the time that Tura Beach has its own Rural Fire Service shed to help defend our town as well as give support to the other growing population areas in the Bega Valley Shire.

We need to be proactive and not retrospective when it comes to the safety of the people and property of Tura Beach and environs. We have much local support from our community to run our own RFS shed and would like your assistance in making this happen.

One of the issues facing council recently is what to do with excess water from the sewerage system. Council proposes to build a pipe out to sea at a cost of $30million.

Some ratbags have suggested that this water should be turned inland to grow plantation timber to fight carbon accumulation and global warming.

How stupid is this idea? All it will do is provide more fuel for the next bushfire.

Another suggestion is to use this water to grow hemp. How would that go in a bushfire? The locals would be more likely to start fires than put them out.

Another proposal from council is to substantially increase rates. This could solve an area of conjecture about whether council rates are the most expensive in the world. This increase will guarantee that we have the top rates and you can't beat that.

It makes me feel warm all over (especially under the collar) knowing that council is a world leader. How lucky are we to have such an intelligent, progressive council.

The catastrophic events of the past three weeks have provided further evidence of the changes in our climate that dictate a permanent drier environment for SE Australia.

Reports of severe water shortages abound across NSW. Our shire is served by questionable groundwater supplies (EPA 2000; DLWC 1999) and our rainfall has been at best sporadic.

Having rightly declared a climate emergency, it is therefore of concern that our council has not implemented more severe water restrictions to ensure our growing community can rely on water for basic household needs and irrigation.

Should we not also be rethinking the strategy to build an ocean outfall to dispose of treated sewerage when in fact this water source could be recycled for domestic use?

This is standard practice world-wide and we do not want to go to the expense of building a desalination plant to service the needs of our valley in years to come.

Let's not join the many regions in NSW which have under-estimated the impact of long-term drought and already run dry.