Wildlife corridors to get city plan protection

Protecting wildlife corridors by seeking to amend the recently adopted City Plan was one of three motions resolved during a lengthy closed session at Redland City Council’s last meeting.

Other matters discussed in a lengthy closed session on 10th October included a grab bag of other proposed City Plan amendments and a legal appeal relating to a development at 4-8 Rachow Street, Thornlands.

Here is a link to the 10th October meeting minutes which were published on the Council’s website on 19th October, seven working days after the meeting was held.

Video recordings of Council meetings are usually published on the council website two days after the meeting, on a Friday afternoon.

Here is a link to the video recording of the meeting on 10th October which does not include the two and half hours held in closed session.

Close vote on wildlife corridors protection

A motion to commence a major amendment to City Plan to reflect the principles of the Wildlife Connections Plan approved in 2017 was narrowly approved 6/5.

Crs Wendy Boglary, Paul Golle, Lance Hewlett, Murray Elliott, Tracey Huges, and Paul Bishop voted FOR the motion.
Crs Karen Williams, Peter Mitchell, Mark Edwards, Julie Talty and Paul Gleeson voted AGAINST the motion.

An attempt to weaken the motion by excluding “excluding core habitat” was defeated with the same voting results.

This close vote appears to be a setback for the pro-developer Williams Team and in particular Cr Julie Talty who is understood to be campaigning stridently against use of the city plan to protect wildlife corridors.

Just prior to the Council meeting on 10th October, Cr Talty posted on her Facebook page that:

My heart is pounding through my chest, my hands are shaking, needless to say my stress level is through the roof. Today I’m fighting tooth and nail for you on matters deeply important to residents in Mount Cotton, Sheldon and and Redland Bay. I will be asking this be taken out of confidential so you can have all the details. Five years of work may be wiped away in one fell swoop by people who have no understanding of the implications of what they will do.

At the meeting her attempt to have the item taken out of confidential session failed so it seems that for some time her followers will be left not knowing what on earth she was talking about.

The process of amending the city plan is likely to take about a year, including a public consultation process. This means the amendments might not be implemented until just a few months before the next local council elections due in March 2020.

Confusion over changes to local laws

At the general meeting on 10th October councillors were supposed to deal with a report proposing changes to local laws dealing with matters such as dog management, car parking and shipping containers on property.

The discussion got bogged down initially due to councillors lack of familiarity with new state government legislation about declarations of conflicts of interest – legislation which Mayor Williams described as ridiculous.

Then councillors struggled to agree on the motion to be debated. After a ten minute adjournment, with the public gallery cleared from the room, councillors voted unanimously to ask the Chief Executive Officer to bring back further reports separating each Local Law for individual consideration.

At the meeting tomorrow local laws on shipping containers and car parking will be up for discussion.

The more contentious local law dealing with the number of dogs that people can keep on their properties is not up for discussion.

Council is also reviewing its local laws which currently ban dogs from the Cleveland Markets.

Confidential items up for discussion

at its meeting on 24th October the following items have been listed for confidential discussion:

19.1 Voluntary Transfer of Land Concession October 2018

19.2 Planning and Environment Court Appeal 339 of 2018 – Hosgood Company 3 Pty Ltd & DPK Injection Pty Ltd (MCU013949 Material Change of Use for a Dual Occupancy at 2 Starkey Street, Wellington Point)

19.3 Island Waste Transfer Station Asbestos and Cement Sheeting Disposal Services

Attending the meeting on Wednesday 24 October

Anyone can attend Council’s general meetings and observe proceedings from the public gallery (except for confidential items),

Meetings are held at the Council’s offices at Bloomfield Street in Cleveland, starting at 9:30 am

here is a link to the meeting agenda.

 

Redlands2030 – 23 October 2018