Sunshine Coast Regional Council – Council Corner

DIVISION TWELVE
With
Lew Brennan

Council Corner is your first stop to keep up to date with regional council news and regular councilor columns. Do you have a question for your division representative? Email it to us at: noosaed@scnews.com.au

How do you rate?

Council recently decided to begin a community feedback process for rating issues.
This system was alive and well in the three former councils prior to amalgamation and it’s invaluable that we keep that relationship going.

This approach will enable us to receive good solid feedback and for the community to get a thorough understanding of the complexity of our rates system.

We’ll be going out to the community very soon with an invitation for people to sign up and represent the sectors of our region in regards to rating.

Let’s build a town

There is a diabolical impact on the district of Federal, as the community there are aware – posing one of the many blows of the proposed Traveston Crossing Dam on Division 12 by the state government.

I presented to the Cooroy Chamber of Commerce last week about Main Roads’ detail drawings that reflect the highway from Black Mountain to Federal.

They show a six-lane road that is essentially positioned across the top of where the school is now.

This will affect the whole area. Main Roads, Education Queensland and parents and citizens representatives were all present at the talk, along with council’s works manager (north), Alan Sheridan.

Under these circumstances, I believe there is a great opportunity for the Bligh government to arrange for the relocation of the school as part of a holistic approach to designing a sustainable township in the Federal area, based around the old highway.

I am proposing the whole of the government considers their role in bringing back a community that has been decimated without benefit to them, with the dam water going to Brisbane and the highway over the top of the school – this is a state transport issue rather than a local responsibility with local benefits.

There is a special opportunity here for the state to redeem the situation – there are nearby properties owned by the state that pose a perfectly suitable prospect for a new school and surrounding area to be built.

It would require a whole-of-government approach through planning, main roads, infrastructure and education so that Federal may thrive as a “new” township, rather than perish.

In times when local government boundaries keep growing and that all-important sense of community keeps shrinking, here is an opening to recreate a sustainable and functioning township where the community lifestyle that has been enjoyed can continue, albeit a few kilometers down the road.

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