She looks out the small window of her Faringdon Village home to where two large fire-fighting tanks were installed just weeks ago, altering the familiar view she had across a path and to Nambucca Plaza.

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The tanks are quite hard to miss.

Towering over the tiny house beside them, the two emergency fire-fighting water tanks have been placed just three metres from Dorothy’s home of 25 years.

Dorothy is supported at home by daughter and full-time carer Vicki.

“I hate to think of what this is doing to Mum,” Vicki told NOTA.

“She misses being able to see people walking around the village and she misses the daylight through the windows.”

According to Vicki, the first she knew of the plan to install them was when workmen began making preparations for the slab and accompanying drainage work on the triangle of common ground beside the house.

She attempted to contact management and eventually managed to catch the Village manager riding by on his bicycle.

He reassured her that the tanks were being set back from the house, certainly not that two tanks, one five metres high, would be butted right up against the footprint of the land her mother leases from Faringdon Village.

What used to be a sunny western side, enough to warrant the installation of blinds on the windows last year, has been transformed into permanent shade.

Vicki holds little hope for the flowers and garden that her mum had planted along the garden beds on that side.

“I feel frustrated and betrayed, especially for Mum who owns this house,” Vicki said.

“Now I don’t think anyone would dispute that she has lost value on her asset.”

Dorothy told NOTA how she decided to buy the house outright on leased land in the village.

“It’s so convenient,” she said.

“And I thought, it’s great to have that little bit of land beside it, too small for a house.

“It always felt so open to the world,” she said

Vicki said her mother now “feels isolated” as a result of the tank installation.

“She used to sit in her loungeroom and look out the window to see friends and strangers from the village, making the trip across to the village or out for a walk.

“Now she can’t see anything.”

Village management, in a recent letter to Dorothy and Vicki, claimed the placement of the tank installation was unavoidable.

“The siting of the tanks and pump required an area of sufficient common ground to install them – and there is no other area in the Village where the tanks and pumps can be located so as to meet the requirement that they be located close to the watermain and are easily accessible from the entrance,” Sonia Williams, Chair of Faringdon Village Pty Ltd, wrote in her letter.

Ms Williams also stated in her correspondence that “all residents (had been notified in) a letter on 8 February informing them of planned works”.

Vicki says she and other neighbours in the small cul-de-sac have no memory of receiving such a letter and the first any of them knew of the works was when the land was being marked out in June.

Faringdon Village Director Paul Stewart told News Of The Area, “The whole village was informed that the fire hydrant system was being upgraded.

“Residents in newer houses with a fire hydrant on their property were all met with individually and informed before work was carried out on their property,” he said.

“Because this was not on Ms Bunyan’s property it was not necessary to speak with her individually.

“That was the only place which was suitable for these works which were necessary compliance work for the Village,” he said.

A map dated November 2023 shows a slightly different footprint for the infrastructure with the two tanks located along Flooded Gum Close rather than running parallel to the house as they currently are.

“The original planned location of the tanks had to be changed because we couldn’t achieve what we needed in terms of hydraulic pressure,” explained Mr Stewart.

“In the initial plans a diesel pump was to be located alongside the house but that had to be changed around,” he said.

Vicki’s request for compensation for her mother, in the form of reduced land rent, was refused.

“I don’t believe sunlight (for the Bunyan property) has been affected,” Mr Stewart told NOTA.

As to how far infrastructure, such as tanks, can be located from a resident’s boundary, a spokesperson from Nambucca Valley Council told NOTA this is not covered by local government rules and is the owner’s decision in each case.

Residential communities such as Faringdon Village fall under the jurisdiction of the Residential (land lease) Communities Act 2013 although specifics relating to boundaries, buffers and views etc are not outlined in this document.

A spokesperson for the Tenants Advice and Advocacy Service NSW told NOTA that the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal would need to consider each situation on a case-by-case basis to determine whether a situation was a breach of the Act.

Vicki is investigating avenues of compensation.

By Ned COWIE