Bushfire Assessment Battle

Our admin dramas have continued this week. All of our DA documents were uploaded to the council tracking site, where I was able to look at our bushfire assessment that Rawson had submitted, and was disappointed to see that they had assessed us as Bal 29. We have been told all along since before going to tender that the bal assessment would be reviewed as the initial assessment was done before any houses had been built. The whole stage has now been developed, apart from our site, and all of our neighbours have been assessed as bal 12.5. Bal 12.5 is a huge saving in $$, so after a few angry emails and phone calls, Rawson have agreed for us to get an independant bush fire assessment report completed, and they will credit the cost of the report back to us. We have decided to use Newcastle Bushfire Consulting, as they completed our neighbours assessment and have said they support a bal 12.5. The council are going to proceed with assessing our DA but are going to hold off on final approval until the new report is submitted, which should only take 5-7 days. Another delay - but well worth the wait.