40 Romanella Street

Fig Tree Pocket 4069

 

Lord Mayor J. Soorley

Brisbane City Council

69 Ann Street

Brisbane Q 4001

Tuesday, August 14, 2001

Dear Lord Mayor;

I thank you for the copy of your letter to Mr. Matthew & Zoe Richardson dated July 17th 2001. While I was not at the meeting referred to by the Richardsons, I have read their letter to you and I have conducted my own enquires.

Local residents who did attend this meeting have advised that the incident referred to by the Richardsons did occur as reported and that Mr. Cumming was standing quite close to Ms. Jensen and would have heard the comment quite clearly.

In fairness to Ms. Jensen, I would suggest that if the atmosphere of the public meeting in question was similar to the that which I observed at the workshop I did attend on February 13th, there would have been a considerable amount of anger and frustration in the room at the time of the outburst.

Comments in a similar vein made by Mr. Cumming on February 13th angered me enough to cause me to nominate for the position of President of this association after two years of retirement from the position.

More important is the fact that local knowledge of the area was frequently ignored by the planning team. For example, in 1974 the Brisbane river broke its' bank up stream of Mandalay and the main course was diverted through Council land currently leased by the pony Club and the section of Lone Pine used as a gum tree plantation.  

The flow was so rapid through this section that S.E.S. boats could not get through to us. Had there been any houses in this area, they would have been washed away or destroyed.

The Lone Pine land in question is zoned in local plan for low-density housing. A section of pony Club land described in a draft plan as being "relatively flood free" actually had three metres of water flowing across it in January 1974.

Information used by the Council Planning Committee relating to flood effected areas appears to be based on a state government flood map that carries a warning about assuming the information to be accurate. It was based on 1933 information upgraded from R.A.A.F. photographs taken in late January 1974. The main photograph used was F111 run 35, photograph 1563, taken at 3.05pm January 30th.

The flood peaked here late on the morning on Monday 28th and the river resumed its original course well prior to this photograph being taken. It again went around Mandalay instead of through the centre of it.

All of this information was available to the council Planning team in far greater detail than I have given here. The Council Planning team showed little or no interest in local input and the comment in your reply to the Richardsons that Mr. Cumming had advised you that the conduct of Council staff "has at all times been professional and courteous" seems to be a little overstated.  

A professional team would have taken more interest in local knowledge and opinions, especially in matters as important as accurate flood information.

The word "courteous" as it applies to community consultation in this instance is, I feel, quite well covered by this letter and really depends on the standards you require of your staff.

Yours sincerely

 

Warren Fletcher

President

Mandalay Progress Association Inc.

 

c.c.      

Councillor Jane Prentice

Mr. Ronan Lee M.P. State Member for Indooroopilly

Hon. Leonie Short M.P. Federal Member for Ryan

 

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