Computer Glitch Stalls Access To Council Data

Illawarra Mercury

Saturday March 8, 2008

By BRETT COX

A TECHNICAL malfunction has caused Wollongong City Council to lose access to information entered into its computer system over a 12-day period earlier this year.

Residents ringing the council over recent weeks following up their written inquiries were told that all information and documents entered into the council's computer system between January 27 and February 7 had been lost.

Pam Howard, who wrote to the council in late January after a development next to her Wollongong home allegedly caused part of her backyard to collapse, was one of those affected by the glitch.

She was told the council had no way of knowing who they had received information from and were simply relying on people to ring them back.

Letters of complaint had vanished, she was told when she followed up her original inquiry in February.

"When I rang up, I was told everything put into the computers between those dates was lost," she said.

A council spokesman told the Mercury "no permanent loss of any council documents occurred following technical difficulties experienced during a routine computer upgrade to one of council's IT systems in late January".

"Electronic versions of documents were temporarily unavailable; however, the original documents were and are secure."

Ms Howard was asking for council action after part of her land collapsed during construction of a four-storey apartment block next door.

She lost half of her side fence during construction of the apartment's underground car park, which she says also caused cracking inside on her walls.

The apartments are being built by Sebastian Builders.

An engineer's report prepared for Ms Howard suggested her home's foundations needed to be underpinned by the builder to stop them moving in the future.

But Frank Sebastian, owner of the building company, doesn't believe this is necessary and doubts the company's work has caused any internal damage. He blamed heavy rain last month and the surrounding heavy clay soil for the collapsed wall.

"We will fix her boundary as original and put in a new fence," he said, indicating action had already been taken to secure the boundary.

But Ms Howard said she wanted this in writing.

The building's certifier, Ron Moore, said Ms Howard's house was safe but he was waiting to hear from the builder's engineer.

The council officer looking after the complaint was not available for comment.

© 2008 Illawarra Mercury

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