What’s happening with the Weinam Creek PDA?

In this week’s letters, what’s happening with plans for development in the Weinam Creek Priority Development Area, should the koala be removed from Council’s logo and plenty of questions about the proposed Mt Cotton chicken poo power project.

Toondah’s stalled but Weinam Creek is ominously quiet

So the Mayor gets a little excited in speaking with her mayoral colleagues at a Canberra talkfest – claiming that the Federal Government is the body holding up the “development” of Toondah Harbour.

Whereas, she would be well aware, that it is the Walker Group itself that has repeatedly requested extensions for the Federal Government’s environmental vetting of their planned Priority Development destruction of Moreton Bay.

But thinking of the Toondah PDA, it does remind one of another mayoral lapse – the important Priority Development Area which has gone missing – Weinam Creek at Redland Bay.

Yes the same mob, Walker Group, was handed the Weinam Creek PDA three years ago along with the gift of Toondah.  And after an initial burst of Toondah Lite: only 20 hectares of Moreton Bay to be filled and only a 200 birth marina to be gouged out, it was briefly put forward in December 2015 as a tentative plan.  Now all regarding the Weinam Creek PDA has gone ominously quiet.

Last year the Mayor assured us that the Weinam Creek PDA was well underway and would soon be revealed.  Christmas made it first and, as Easter 2017 approaches, there is still no plan in sight.

Now could it be that Walker Group and the Mayor fear putting forward a second plan? Afraid, perhaps, that revealing another bay fouling, public land destroying plan now would simply amplify the obvious – if Toondah goes ahead, then with Weinam Creek, even more hectares of Moreton Bay, will be ruined in the quest for private profit under the guise of public benefit.

It’s been made quite clear by the public – both Toondah Harbour and the Weinam Creek marine terminals need improvements. But the modest improvements wanted are those that would benefit mainlanders and Bay Islanders through better parking and transport as well as encouraging tourists to visit a unique part of the world.

Let’s work towards that and leave the rest of our pristine, undeveloped Moreton Bay as a fish, dugong and bird inhabited natural environment that will allow us, and generations to come, to enjoy and appreciate the great treasure that it is.

Brian Whitelaw
Cleveland

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Redlands koalas at risk

As a biologist, I predict that while Redland City Council sidesteps its own regulations with regard to tree clearing, we will lose the remaining 20% of the koala population within five years.

Then, you will be able to go through the Redlands with your children and grand children and say: ‘See all those little boxes on small blocks and all those units. They killed off the local koalas’.

The koalas will be long gone and yet the logo of RCC will still be a stylised koala – so I suggest you adopt a new logo, and a good one would be a stylised block of units.

I am a zooplankton specialist with 37 years of experience, including 14 new species of zooplankton from Moreton Bay. A couple of months ago, Council staff decided to disallow a man from pulling his boat up onto the beach because it could damage the zooplankton population. Let me assure everyone, the damage would be insignificant.

At the same time “our” Council is supporting a massive development at Toondah Harbour that would mean dredging a large area to make way for a boat marina and a multi-storey block of units to accommodate thousands of units. That would have a huge negative impact on both zooplankton, the fish and the rest of the marine flora and fauna.

It is obvious that many in Council cannot see past the dollar.

Dr D. Tafe
Victoria Point

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Mt Cotton chicken poo power project

I am proud of the Mt Cotton community who stood up and had their say on behalf of their families and their neighbours about the proposed chicken manure incinerator.

The comments from the developer are misleading, claiming there will be threats of chicken manure litter in the Redlands. Most of the litter was to be trucked in from all over SEQ. And many chicken sheds in the Redlands have closed down over the past few years – the latest in Kinross Road.

It’s interesting how Mr. Bray of Cleveland Power claims the power station will fuel 40,000 homes when it was only stated at 900 in the application.

82 new jobs will be lost says Mr. Bray – when only a few weekends ago, Mr Bray said there would be about four people working at the incinerator. He previously had said that the incinerator equipment had been purchased in India and stored in a shed.

If government was so passionate, then why has it has taken any government more than 13 years to consider this project? And there still isn’t any government funding for the incinerator.

I congratulate those Redland councillors who voted against approving an extension. I was surprised, however, that Cr. Talty voted against it too, as only four days ago in the park at Mt Cotton, she was promoting and praising the incinerator.

This incinerator was refused by Redland City Council staff and councillors in 2011 on good planning grounds. The only reason the case was lost in court was that Council ‘rolled over’ and its legal team didn’t even attempt to defend Council’s refusal.

At the time, I attended the court case with some local residents and we were shocked at the lack of commitment by the Council legal team.

How can Mr Bray say he has started working on the site, when I wonder if he has even had operational drawings approved?

Concerns about the incinerator relate to the release toxins as per the application. During the objection period, an environmental scientist specialising in air quality, two electrical and mechanical engineers and an associate professor of oncology at PA hospital all wrote detailed objections to this incinerator.

The residents of Redlands, but most importantly Mt Cotton residents who have moved into the area since 2006, have had no opportunity to have a say and since 2012 have not been been properly informed of this proposal for Mt Cotton.

Toni Bowler
Sheldon

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If you have something to say to the Redlands community, send an email to theeditor@redlands2030.net

Letters published by Redlands2030 – 7 April 2017