People in need will be provided with free firewood and vouchers to help pay heating bills under a scheme to be run by Orange City Council.
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Council will provide $5000 to buy wood to help fill a wood bank at a council site where people with vouchers supplied by charities could collect supplies.
It is likely council will also seek help from service clubs to provide a wood delivery service for people who cannot get to the wood bank.
Cr Glenn Taylor, who proposed the scheme, said that with the details of the scheme still to be worked out, it could not start this year.
It would be in place for winter 2019.
- Cr Glenn Taylor
“To be realistic we would be saying that it’s intended to be in place for winter 2019,” he said.
Council voted 8-4 for the scheme to be implemented at its meeting on Tuesday night.
Cr Taylor said he hoped the community would also make donations of wood and cash to help council buy wood from authorised sellers in Orange.
“Orange is a city, I believe, which has a heart,” he said.
“It may be the case of providing a few armloads of wood to tide [people] over until payday,” he said.
He said there were many needy people in Orange who were going cold because they could not afford heating.
Several councillors questioned the proposal, arguing it could make council liable if contaminated wood was given out, and that it would be difficult to organise.
Some argued that wood fires were being replaced by gas and electric heaters, and also the scheme might encourage people to keep using wood rather than changing to cleaner methods.
Cr Scott Munro said the assistance scheme should be run by charities.
“They are at the coalface of people that are doing it tough,” he said.
Deputy mayor Joanne McRae wanted more details.
“I’d be interested in what are the alternatives that other councils are using,” she said.
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