Walter Taylor South Action Group Inc. Protecting the Streetscapes

The consultation was run by an external consulting group. The event seemed to focus around filling out forms and sticking th results in a box.
Nicole Johnston was there, obviously back from leave. However she was unable to answer basic questions like the number of bus movements, where the buses will be travelling, the park and ride suggestions etc. She stated that she had asked Council officers these questions but the answers were not available. 
Council is clearly out of control, or under the control of a dictator, when our Council spends $16 million of ratepayers money and the local Councillor has no idea what the mechanics of the proposal are.
The sessions were run by an external consulting group, staffed with personnel aligned to Campbell Newman's LNP party. So you can guess what the responses will be
What a white-wash
The land has been bought and as residents we are impotent against Campbell Newman's development proposals
He is patronising, autocratic and couldn't care less about the legitimate concerns of the local constituents.   
Nicole Johnston and Matthew Bourke are clearly also impotent to represent the views of locals   
 

The information session tonight illustrates the Lord Mayor's contempt for the community. The event was managed by Rowland, a consulting company, and only one person from the Brisbane City Council was there - Nicole Johnston. We were asked to complete feedback forms. I asked one of the Rowland employees just how the feedback would be dealt with. He said that he thought that his company would read all of the feedback forms and then write a report detailing the community's views and forward them to Council. (He did not seem too sure of the destination.)  The report is sure to sanitize the outrage on my own feedback form.  I asked if the report would be put on the Brisbane City Council web site, but it was not known whether the report would be made public (probably not). There was no record of attendees except feedback forms (and they did not need to be handed in at the session itself).
The fact that the "information sessions" were arranged so hastily and that the Saturday session has been publicized with three different time frames (10-12 according to the newspapers and Nicole Johnston's messages; 10-2 according to Cr Jane Prentice, Chairman for Public & Active Transport and Economic Development; and 11-2, I have heard, in the Westside News) suggests that there is no real intention to provide a forum for thoughtful community response - though this is, I'm sure, what has been given tonight.  Similarly, the signs announcing the development at the site for the bus depot have been put up hastily and with the obvious intention of ensuring that no one notices them.
 
 
 

Campbell Newman continues to treat his constituents in the Southwest with absolute disdain and contempt.
 
Councillor Jane Prentice, Chairman for Public & Active Transport and Economic Development, in an email published on this site urged residents to "Come along to an information session". What information!?
 
We went to tonight's information session. We were given a Media Release dated the 4th of August that we've already seen rehashed and reprinted at every opportunity - and a council document advertising the information sessions. That's right...the only information we got was that we were at an information session!
 
The staff manning the information sessions were not readily identifiable, they could not answer any questions about the bus depot, they couldn't even answer any questions about the consultation process - other than that they had no information.
 
They only things I learnt were:

• The staff running the sessions were only contracted to do so mid last week - making an absolute mockery of Cr Prentice and the Lord Mayor's claims at the community meeting last week that they were always planning extensive community consultation. The truth is they rushed to put something together only after the community became aware of council's plans
• There is no timeframe to give feedback. No timeframe = no process. No process = no one cares.
• Cr Johnson learnt of this information session they same way we did. Through the media. Cr Johnson who opposed this development in council, our Councillor and our gateway to Council, is out of the loop.

 
This is a sham. When a Mayor and council choose to act in this way, ignoring his constituents - and let’s remember that this is an LNP ward - it grows beyond an issue for the concerned citizens of the Oxley/Chelmer corridor. Leadership of this nature is an issue for the people of Brisbane!
 
There was a time when the media loved Politicians and political scandal because it sold. Why then are the media sitting on their hands on this? A few inches on page 3 of the South West news is not coverage. Where are the media? It's time Brisbane knew the Circus that is running this city.
 

 I just returned from the consultation on the Bus Depot held at the Corinda Library.  WHAT A FARCE!!  There was no record of attendance, and papers were handed out by a private group.  No one could provide answers to questions; not even Nicole Johnson who, apparently because she did not vote for the project when it came up in Council, is being kept in the dark on these issues.
To treat people who attended these meetings in this way is a monumental insult.  I attended this meeting in good faith and the  trust was not returned.  There are genuine problems associated with the Depot regarding traffic, the location close to housing and the Sherwood School, and evident increase in truck traffic given the development at Rocklea.  But all that was available was a sheet of paper reminiscent of an exam paper with the clear message that no matter what you say you will fail.
While neighourhood people have organized to protest to an apparently "deaf' Lord Mayor and local councillors concerning the bus depot and five storey development, no-one has ever mentioned political association.  The issue as we see it is not a political one.  However, the meeting on Saturday was turned into a political event by the Young Liberals in attendance.  People in the neighbourhood who attended were greeted with a flyer outlining the corruption in the Labor party.  However, I have observed for many years that the voices of those who point out others' weaknesses are describing their own. (When you point your index finger at someone else, the thumb is pointing back to you.) Why have the five story development in Corinda, for example,  and the Bus Depot on Sherwood Road been dropped on us from nowhere?  I suspect that there are a number of silent storiesassociated with five storeys and that the bus depot, if not completed, will result in someone getting busted.  
I feel hurt, anger, outrage, astonishment, disbelief, insult, frustration, powerlessness, oppression and a number of other nouns that would take me the rest of the night to catalogue.

 The Community Consultation meeting is a farce and an insult to ones intelligence . Nicole was the only Council person in attendance. I believe it was organised by an outside events type company to distribute some information about the Proposed Bus Station.
 
 I know a lot of residents that attended weren't very happy. Maybe that is not a bad thing as it will make residents even more determined to object to the proposed Bus Station and the way Campbell Newman's team is treating them. 
The advertisment in the local papers said these meetings were an opportunity to give residents a say about the design and construction of the new bus station. I asked Nicole if that meant the bus station is a 'Done Deal'. She said that she new nothing of the advertisment ??.
 
In a recent email letter from Nicole Johnston she states that there will be up to 800 bus movements per day from that bus station, so if it is operating 20 hours a day that is an average of 40 bus movements every hour. Can you imagine the conjestion on Sherwood Road together with the heavy truck traffic coming and going from the Rocklea Markets. Sherwood Road is quite inadequate to handle such trafiic given that there are three bridges with only one lane each way. There will also be increased traffic with an additional 400 workers coming and going each day as these workers won't be from the local community, including a number of cars entering and exiting the proposed park and ride within the facility
 
We distributed 2000 flyers in the past few days to advise residents of these meetings as the BCC gave very little notice that these so called meetings were going to be held . It was a mammoth task to get those flyers out to the residents. Maybe the BCC are trying to wear us down.
 
There seems to be a lot of unknowns and contradictions with the Draft Plans and the Bus Station . It would be interesting to know who the Developers are that are pushing for these changes to our Character Suburbs.
 

(reposting into this forum)
 
BCC Sherwood Bus Depot Feedback
Email: sherwoodroadbusdepot@brisbane.qld.gov.au.
 
Kevin Rudd
Prime Minister
Web: http://www.pm.gov.au/PM_Connect/contact_your_pm_form
 
Graham Perrett
Federal Member for Moreton
Email: graham.perrett.mp@aph.gov.au
Phone: 07 3344 2622
 
Bernie Ripoll
Federal Member for Oxley
Email: bernie.ripoll.mp@aph.gov.au
Phone: 07 3818 3900
 
Anna Bligh
Premier of Queensland
Email: thepremier@premiers.qld.gov.au
Phone: 07 3224 4500
Fax: 07 3221 3631
 
John-Paul Langbroek
State Leader of the Opposition
Web: http://www.jplangbroek.com/contact
Phone: 07 3406 7997
Fax: 07 3221 1496
 
Scott Emerson
State Member for Indooroopilly
Web: http://scottemerson.com.au/contact
Phone: 07 3878 1928
Fax: 07 3378 7072
 
Campbell Newman
Lord Mayor
Web: http://www.campbellnewman.com.au/contact-campbell.html
Fax: 07 3403 9930
 
Shayne Sutton
Council Opposition Leader
Email: morningside.ward@ecn.net.au
 
Nicole Johnson
Councillor for Tennyson
Email: Tennyson.ward@ecn.net.au
Phone: 07 3403 8605
Fax: 07 3403 8607
 
Jane Prentice
Councillor for Walter Taylor
Chairman for Public & Active Transport and Economic Development
Web: http://www.janeprentice.com.au/contact.php
Phone: 07 3407 0005
Fax: 07 3407 0008
 
Matthew Bourke
Councillor for Jamboree
Email: jamboree.ward@ecn.net.au
Phone: 07 3407 7000

612 ABC Brisbane
Web: http://www.abc.net.au/brisbane/radio/about.htm?section=contactus
Talkback: 1300 222 612
Fax: 07 3377 5612
 
Spencer Howson (612 ABC Brisbane)
Email: howson.spencer@abc.net.au
 
Couriermail.com.au
Web: http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/editorial/letter
Email: cmonline@qnp.newsltd.com.au
 
Kyle Knight
Editor
South-West News and Springfield News
Email: knightk@qst.newsltd.com.au
Phone: 07 3377 7732
Mobile: 0410 097 459
Fax: 07 3377 7788
 
The Satellite
Web: http://www.thesatellite.com.au/contact/feedback
Email: satellite@qtcn.com.au
Phone: (07) 3457 4100
 
7 News
Web: http://au.news.yahoo.com/content-upload/
Switchboard: 07 3369 7777
Newsroom fax: 07 3368 2973
General fax: (07) 3368 2970
 

 I attended the "information session" concerning the bus depot again on Saturday and arrived just before noon.  There was no sign outside indicating that the consultation was taking place and the library looked closed. Because there were so few residents there at that time, it was possible to talk to people who apparently represented Council.
On Thursday night, I was not able to find anyone representing the City Council.   Because there were only a few people at the session today (Saturday), I was able to ask who is representing the City Council. Two people did identify themselves.  No one wore a name tag to indicate who they were or that they worked for the Council.  For this reason most people who came on Thursday evening, when the session was more crowded, were under the impression  that there was no one present representing Council to answer questions.
I made the point that this lack of identification was just one more instance of the exceedingly poor public relations generated by the Council, which makes the  community feel it is being dumped on and generates anxiety and anger.

I attended Saturday morning's session at the Corinda Library and this is what I discovered:
 

Poor Consultation Process

The community feedback report will be prepared by a consulting firm who will collect resident information and provide a report to council.  There was a lack of clarity around whether this feedback would be provided to the community and so residents have no way of knowing whether this proposal will proceed with due consideration.
 
Also present were 2 council officers - one who had knowledge of the operation of the bus depots and one who had knowledge of the bus depot plan.
 

200,000 litres of Diesel - Tank Locations unknown

The bus depot officer explained that the depot will have around 200 buses with 200,000 litres of diesel fuel onsite and the decision had not yet been made as to whether this will be held in above ground or underground tanks - this would depend on the site studies which have yet to be done.   How the decision about how to store fuel has not been made in an environmentally sensitive area of Oxley Creek is astounding.
 

Hours of Operation - 4:00am till Midnight

When asked about movements it was estimated that the depot will operate from 4:00am to Midnight 7 days a week.  Drivers arrive around 4am and buses start being dispatched at 4:15am with most buses having departed by 7:15am.  Some drivers will call back at the depot for meals, whilst others will have meals on the road.  Buses will start arriving back at the depot for the evening between 6pm and midnight.   Repairs to buses occur between the hours of 8am and 6pm with around 10% of buses onsite for maintenance or ready for spares.  The hours of operation are not conducive to being located adjacent to a residential area with noise from both bus and worker movements, and this will impact those who are trying to avoid the traffic by travelling earlier in the morning.
 

Diesel Only - Gas Option Unlikely

When asked if it was possible that gas could be provided to this site if the council decided in the future that this was the preferred option, the officer said that this was unknown, although unlikely as recent studies had shown although the gas buses were cheaper to run that the environmental impacts on the diesel buses in the latest models indicated diesel was the better option.  He also mentioned that the gas leak at the Toowong Bus Depot was actually an explosion, so let's hope this option is not considered for the future - we do not need another evacuation of the area as we had with the warehouse fire.
 

No 'Empty Running' Analysis Done

It was confirmed that the majority of buses would be travelling east along Sherwood Road.  When asked what the difference in "empty running" would be between having buses at Larapinta and Sherwood the officer stated that this was unknown as no route planning had yet occurred.  So it is unknown if the Sherwood Depot would actually be more efficient in terms of running of buses - is council really making a considered decision here?

Clash with Queensland Rail Proposed Tunnel?

The council officer for the planning of the depot was asked if he knew about Queensland Rail's proposed in their published 2008 plans indicating a high priority for a tunnel to link with the Tennyson line.  This tunnel is QR's solution to the expected capacity limitations of the Beenleigh to City link in 2025 - whereby passenger trains will need to be diverted through Tennyson and then in an underground loop up around Corinda and then surfacing south of Graceville Station heading towards the city.  The question is - where does the link surface on the Tennyson link as it must surface before it reaches the flood prone Oxley Creek area (my guess is precisely where the bus depot will be located).
 

Incorrect Flood Planning

A local resident who had recently purchased a house in the area asked the planning officer where the flood levels for the proposed depot were marked on the plan.  She expressed concern that the supposed Q100 flood levels were incorrect, because the nearby Merewether Street is shown as being near the Q50 level.  Additionally, if the bus depot  was built up above flood levels, this would have an immediate impact on the residents upstream as the water would bank up and flood their properties more easily (as evidenced recently by another development just next to the depot causing the issue).
 

Conclusion

An inadequate amount of planning and analysis has been performed prior to the purchase of this property, so any promises made to the community cannot be made with any degree of certainty.
This bus depot should not proceed.  The residents don't want it, and council have not proven it's the correct solution to our bus needs.
 

THe best word I can think of is useless.  The private "consultation" company had no detail, the only person from Brisbane Transport didn't know where the buses would go to once they left the depot but believed the site was perfect - something he repeated parrot fashion in between insulting local residents and questions and concerns raised at the meetings have not been addressed.

I attended the information session on the Thursday night, and at no time was I able to get any information other than a flyer that said I was at an information session, an old press release and plan that didnot include the residental houses in Kennard St which is directly adjacent to the proposed bus garage.
However there were positive aspects of the evening:

• I was able to meet alot of locals who were in agreement that the proposed site was not acceptable!!
• There was a very good turn out which showed the communities concerns regarding the proposal
• Councillor Johnstone made herself available to listen to people concerns and tried to answer questions.

My wife went to the afternoon consultation session and was told that buses to the City from Sherwood would be popular (based on the 444 route to Moggill) and the train line was at capacity.
 
The facts are that the 444 does not compete with trains.  Also in the great bus route shake up around 15 years ago the Route 6 from Corinda to the City was abolished - the 106 follows more or less the same route from Graceville Ave through Corinda on its way to Mt Ommaney.
 
The headway on the rail line from Corinda to the City is 2 minutes.  "Headway" means that trains are automatically kept in this case 2 minutes apart (or about the distance between say Sherwood and Graceville).  In theory if there were enough carriages, there could be a train per minute from Corinda using both lines alternately.
 
Tonight I was told that there could be a number of "unattractive" industries on site if the bus depot doesn't go ahead.
 
While general/light industry would be allowed without rezoning the land, the Council and the EPA would be enforcing measures such as traffic control, acoustic controlled buildings (so the sound doesn't get out) or scrubbing (chemical or filtering) of the exhaust emissions.
 
In short - don't be sold a story by an increasing arrogant and despairing council.  Kudos to the people from Sherwood Rd Rocklea who were asking why so many buses would be added to the existing traffic nightmare that is the Sherwood/Fairfield Road intersection.
 

Thankyou to many of those in previous comments for the excellent background information, certainly more informative than anything i could learn at the 'consultation' session i attended. First, re the comment "But to be fair to council, they've bought a block of land and propsed building a bus depot there.  It's very early days and I wouldn't expect them to have all their studies done yet.  In fact, I dare say they haven't started them yet." - so, this means council has spent $9 million-odd dollars with no studies or plans!!! Second, i am interested to know how others have fared with providing feedback to or getting information from the bus depot email address - i've not had any acknowledgement of my email, let alone any answers to my questions. Ditto when i forwarded it to Nicole Johnston.

I thought I would share the additional information that I learnt at this consultation (sorry for the late post - I've been busy lately).
 
The person representing council who runs the bus depots did not have a choice in bus depot location - the selection of a site is done by another area of council (I was referred to planner present).  When I asked if this was an ideal location, he said no - the ideal location would be right next to a major highway - something like Garden City.  When asked if the analysis work had been done on empty running savings from this location, I found out it had not been done and that this would only be done after the consultation had finished as it would not be worth the effort if the bus depot did not proceed. 
 
This seems to conflict with the information that the Mayor and Cr Prentice are providing the community.
 
The planner who chose the site was quizzed over the sites that were examined - the problem is a lack of suitable land size, so location was not really a consideration when it came to picking the Sherwood site, this was about land availability above the Q100 flood level.
 
I also asked if council tendered out for a suitable site, to see if commercial operators might be interested in finding something suitable.  I was told that this was not done, but when it came time to call for tenders for construction of the building, the tender would invite people with alternative locations to put up their offers.
 
This seems to conflict with the information that the Mayor and Cr Prentice are providing the community.
 
I challenged the people running the session as to why council was giving insufficient notice to residents of these meetings (e.g. newspaper articles are only appearing 1-2 days prior to the meetings) - the problem is a council one, because the external organisation is only getting a few days notice to setup and run these meetings.
 
I also asked the question when the "Information Sessions" end and when does the consultation session begin?  The answer was that this was the opportunity to provide feedback - but not in the ordinary way that the community has done so in the past, because "there were too many people to deal with in the traditional way".
 
When pressed about how much positive feedback has come from these information sessions, it was revealed that approx. 10% was positive, the overwhelming majority - 90% was negative!!
 
This seems to be poor organisation by the Mayor and Cr Prentice - and I have to ask the question, is this mishandling deliberate to minimise the input of the community?
 
Is it too much to ask to stop the political spin and ask for honesty from our elected councillors?

Why dont they make the area in a sports grounds, if they are looking to make the Alan Fletcher Research Station into sports fields and will no doubt have similar problem to the current netball courts in Graceville. It could be and ideal solution for locals to have these research station and netball courts dedicated for parks and the new land for sporting fields .
There will be ample parking, no congestion issues through small streets, enough area that amplified noise from speakers wont bother locals, no noise issues from whistles, flood light would be far enough away to not bother peopel and it could be used for multiple sports.

I was interested to read that BCC has apparently purchased land and buildings along Railway Terrace, Corinda. If true, this raises a number of very serious questions about this whole sordid process and more importantly about the integrity of a number of the key players:
1. When was this land purhased and on whose authority. ie.. did Campbell Newman and Jane Prenctice know about this. If so, what was their purpose in so doing - as far as I am aware Council is not in the business of residential property development;  and if they didn't know about this, why not and who did know. As far as I am aware in communication with residents have these purchases never been mentioned. This seems to be a very serious breach of trust and if true calls into question everything the LNP Council has told us thus far
2. Will these pruchases now pave the way for Campbell Newman's 5 -storey buildings in Corinda (which by Council staff's own admissions is being done largely to increase profits of developers). These could be sold off on the basis of planning for 5-storey buildings and these developments used as a precedent for other such monstrosities
It is time that this Council told the residents the truth about how long they have been planning this and when they come clean with their plans.

...but "protecting your support base" definitely is.
 
Council originally weren't planning to purchase the land along Railway Terrace at the Oxley road end of the proposed bus depot. The original intent was for the businesses occupying this land to be offered a new 5 year lease - however after outcry from local residents Council apparently amended, or are considering amending, the contract to include this extra land and will most likely re-zone it as residential (as it isn't required for the bus depot). At least this is how I understand it based on what was told to me at both the September & October "information" sessions.
 
This leads on to the logical question of "Why?", and while I openly admit that I can't put my hand on my heart and swear to the facts - with the following being purely my subjective opinion - I suspect one doesn't need to be a member of MENSA to answer this question.
 
You see, the proposed bus depot has had one ardent supporter right from the very first community meeting held at the Sherwood RSL. Even at this very early stage a resident of Railway Terrace who lives directly adjacent to the block of land in question was espousing the virtues of the proposed depot, armed with A3 size design drawings showing the proposed bus depot overlayed onto the block of land purchased by council. In these drawings, as it was in the drawings displayed in the first round of information sessions in August, the land at the Oxley Road end of the proposed development is shown with the appearance of being parkland (i.e., green with trees and no buildings in sight).
 
Now history has since shown that this resident has gone on to be the Lord Mayor's champion for this cause, and has been referenced by name as an example of the support from local residents for the proposed bus depot in printed news articles and also I believe in Council minutes relating to the proposed bus depot. Indeed this person has, to my knowledge, been the only resident immediately contiguous to the proposed site in favour of the bus depot who has been named by Council..
 
To my mind it isn't a stretch from here to imagine that this resident would have been less than impressed to find out that the land across from their house wasn't going to become a parkland, or residential housing as the early plans implied, but indeed was going to stay as it was...and my personal feelings on this subject aside, I believe they would have been right to feel mislead, cheated, duped...
 
Equally it therefore isn't such a stretch to imagine Council pulling out all the stops rectify this error and to keep their poster child nicely in line...even where those stops may include varying a purchase contract and potentially re-zoning land...