According to NSW RFS Neighbourhood Safer Places (NSP) are a place of last resort during a bush fire emergency. You should be aware of any Neighbourhood Safer Places in your area and note them in your bush fire survival plan. You can use the RFS App to locate your nearest. https://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/plan-and-prepare/neighbourhood-safer-places Alliance members first visited NSW Parliament in March 2022, presenting a detailed plan for the location of inground bore filled roadside water tanks and designated Neighbourhood Safer Places along Bells Line Road.

For Trish Doyle MP for Blue Mountains and Robyn Preston MP for Hawkesbury it made sense, and they supported the plan. With the support of Blue Mountains Council, roadside water tanks have been installed at Mt Tomah and the RFS sheds at Bell and Mt Tomah and now designated Neighbourhood Safer Places (NSP) as is Mt Wilson Hall. Blue Mountains now has 34 Neighbourhood Safer Places.
On 19 August 2022 Bilpin Bushfire Brigade Executive Committee invited the Alliance and Hawkesbury RFS HQ to a meeting at their fire shed where they outlined their opposition to Neighbourhood Safer Places claiming NSP’s encourage people to stay during bushfire disasters.
They also opposed roadside water as they considered there was sufficient water available from other sources. However, if roadside water tanks were to be installed then they would have one to be used only by the RFS or emergency services. The diagram shows the efficiency of roadside water storage for fire fighting compared to the use of Bulk Water Carrier trucks transporting water for roadside refilling of fire trucks.