In a further effort to support communities hit by the bushfire crisis, City of Canterbury Bankstown has been discussing support needs with south coast councils and is actively collaborating with the NSW Disaster Recovery Council Coordination Service.

The service, which will see Council join forces with the City of Sydney, Sydney Resilience, and Local Government NSW, was established to connect councils that can offer resources to those impacted by the bushfires.

Mayor Khal Asfour said CBCity is willing to offer what help it could to bushfire-affected communities and support their local councils.

“These bushfires have not relented, and they have left countless people exhausted and in need of assistance,” he said.

“It is truly amazing how so many of them have been able to persevere and do what was needed during this crisis.

“We will have some of our Council officers and equipment made available to assist these communities get their services back on track.

Mayor Asfour added that City of Canterbury Bankstown is also continuing to raise money for Red Cross to support it rebuild bushfire-affected communities.

“We recently collected gold coin donations at our Bankstown Lunar New Year event on Saturday 18 January.

“This will be continuing at our Australia Day Pool Parties, and Australia Day Twilight event at Belmore.

“For those unable to make it to our events, and would still like to contribute, we will have donation points available at both our Bankstown and Campsie Customer Service Centres and each of our nine library and knowledge centres.

“To assist with our fundraising efforts, we will be donating $10,000, which was the money we would have used to fund our Australia Day fireworks at Belmore Oval.”

To donate to Red Cross online, visit cb.city/redcross