Council is not sending developers packing. Many developments have stalled in Hervey Bay because of the financial situation and due to a lack of demand not because of anything Council has or hasn’t done. Developing land anywhere within the Fraser Coast or in the rest of Queensland, is a complicated process. It is complicated due to the Legislation, by way of Acts and associated Planning Schemes, that were created long before the current Fraser Coast Regional Council came into being. There are many impediments within the Planning Schemes which hinder development. For instance we have bushfire layers, sewerage smell zones, natural area overlays and airport noise zones to mention just a few requirements. Even sheds are now caught up in Planning Schemes because Councillors of the day tried to make shed building on vacant land difficult to stop people residing in sheds! If you want to build a shed on vacant land I have news for you. It is expensive and complicated. On top of Planning Scheme requirements we have State and Federal requirements. The list of requirements seems to grow longer with every passing year. So if you have a permit to build an aquaculture farm from the State Government you still have to apply, pay fees and meet the requirements within the applicable Council Planning Scheme.

 Hervey Bay also has had to implement infrastructure charges in line with State Government requirements. The charges are not a Council invention but a State Government requirement! These charges are used to develop ‘trunk’ infrastructure which is primarily arterial roads and drains. When Council introduced the charges it consulted extensively with the development industry and it also agreed to reduce charges for any ‘shovel ready’ development. This reduction in charges has impacted on our budget projections and helped create the so called Chronicle ‘black hole’ but the fee reductions were done to assist the development and construction industry. It seems Council is damned if we do and damned if we don’t.

 Infrastructure charges are not used anywhere else but on core trunk infrastructure. Let me explain. Main Street in Hervey Bay takes traffic from many outlaying areas into the centre of Hervey Bay. For this reason the road is identified as a ‘trunk’ road. Originally this road was built and designed to cope with a limited number of cars. As the city grows more and more traffic needs to use this road. I think it is fair and reasonable that a developer who is creating new houses and new ‘traffic’ that will use Main Street, contributes a reasonable amount to the upgrade of this arterial road. This is in fact happening now with charges collected from developers being used to upgrade this road. If, instead of developer contributions we expect rate payers themselves to pay for these works then rates (or taxes) would need to be raised. Regardless of who has to pay for upgrading our roads etc someone in deed does. The funds to upgrade trunk infrastructure due to increasing population growth, have to come from someone’s purse. If the development doesn’t occur we don’t need to upgrade the infrastructure and hence we don’t need to spend money. This is perfectly logical to me so why doesn’t the Chronicle explain it so that readers can understand it? In other words there is no black hole! If  development doesn’t occur we don’t need the infrastructure upgraded and so life goes on as usual. Normal maintenance and upkeep of our infrastructure is not what infrastructure charges are used for. Upgrades and maintenance do come from general rates, fees and charges and grants and subsidies etc.

 Now to explain what Council staff do. Council planning staff, under the leadership of Mr David King, assess development applications and make recommendations. They assess an application against the relevant Planning Scheme as that is their job. Council staff cannot and must not assess a development application to arrive at an outcome that the Mayor or Councillors desire. If Councillors want development to occur then they must collectively ensure that the Planning Scheme encourages development to happen. Councillors can’t simply ask the staff to ‘make it so’. If we do direct staff in this manner we are, in my opinion, acting outside our responsibilities. The vast majority of applications that Council processes are dealt with by staff and are approved by staff. Take a look at the Council web site and you can see for yourself the number of applications in and the number out each and every month and you can see how many are refused. The refusals amount to less than 4 a month on average. December 2009 for example saw 62 applications approved and 4 refused! http://www.frasercoast.qld.gov.au/services/town%20planning%20applications%20and%20decisions.shtml

 For complex larger developments the recommendations of staff are reported to Council and Councillors make the final decision to approve or refuse a development. Recently a residential development in Hughes Road, Hervey Bay, was deferred by Council. The Mayor then met with the developer’s representatives and with Council staff and changed conditions were applied to the development. The Councillors approved the development in this changed form. In the Saturday Chronicle on page 7, we read about a successful development to provide housing for RV owners in Maryborough. This development was also a challenge for Council as it was difficult to ‘make it fit’ into the current Planning Scheme but make it fit we did and the development is approved. In other words many developments have been approved throughout the region.

 So I am left to wonder what personal agenda the Chronicle editor has which requires him to publish story after story criticising Council and in particular our planning staff. It should be remembered that if our planning staff, in particular senior staff, decide to leave us or if Council decides to dispense with their services, then it is a very expensive and costly exercise to replace them. A cost that would be borne by our community. Our planning staff work in an extremely difficult environment. I would not be a planner for love or money. Planning staff have to constantly deal with some developers and consultants hell bent on getting what they want now, right now and then they also have to respond to intense questioning by Councillors! Most developers want to make their profit and move on to their next profit making project. This is all well and good if their developments comply with the rules. But frequently applications or enquiries to develop land do not meet Planning Scheme requirements. Developers have in the past in Hervey Bay and Maryborough speculated or gambled by buying land not zoned for residential development. The usual tactic is to buy rural farming land cheaply and then apply to develop it. If Council says sorry but no you are not allowed to develop this land somehow the Chronicle blames Council for ‘making developers leave in droves’. I have sat in Council meeting after Council meeting and read countless reports recommending approval for developments that I don’t believe comply with our rules but none the less are recommended for approval. This is because planning staff continually try their very best to find ways to make developments work within the framework of a set of rules not of their making. Let’s not forget that these rules were approved by us, the Councillors.

So at the risk of annoying you Mr Chapman may I respectfully ask why you are so cranky with Council when most development applications are approved and the ones that aren’t approved are knocked back for very sound reasons? Do you Mr Chapman, want Council to ignore its own Planning Schemes? Do you think you can pressure the Mayor and Councillors into getting rid of our highly skilled planning staff? Do you think that Councillors will respond to the pressure you are applying to them for fear of receiving negative press in the future? I have personally suffered negative press on more than one occasion after simply speaking out as I am doing now. I realise Peter that your paper relies heavily on the property industry for your income but is this reason enough to portray Council so negatively? Maybe sensationalist reporting does improve your circulation and thereby make you look successful. If so I am disappointed in my community. You have told me that Hervey Bay has a very low readership compared to Maryborough. Well the people I speak to in Hervey Bay these days, are telling me they will not buy a paper that plasters rubbish and sensationalist negative stories all over its front page and they don’t appreciate the negative journalism. I sincerely hope that your newspaper is not run simply as a business more concerned with making money than truthfully informing and inspiring a community within which you have chosen to reside.

Fraser Coast people tell me that they do not want development gone wild. Our residents live here because it is a beautiful, relaxed happy place to live. Hervey Bay residents don’t want Hervey Bay spoiled by ad hoc multi unit and high rise development anywhere near their foreshore. They don’t want a concrete coast. Maryborough people tell me they want to see their city retain its unique character and grow its population by encouraging development in appropriate well serviced locations. They do not want to see their beautiful and proud city ‘die’. Outlying townspeople tell me that they want to retain their schools and attract more people to their areas without compromising their rural based quality of life. What we need is a local newspaper that is assisting this process not hindering it by placing so much pressure on Council that our planning staff leave us.

This region is a beautiful place to live. Council staff are working as hard as they can to ensure a professional delivery of service. They have implemented PD Online and are continually trying to improve their level of service. How do we expect staff to function well and enjoy living here when their families have to cope with continual public criticism of their performance? If I was looking at applying for a job here one look at the local paper would see me turn on my heel and look elsewhere. We have never been able to attract enough planners to our region due to a nation wide shortage and I’m afraid the excellent ones we have now will turn tail and run.

So Peter, please realise we are doing our very best to help our community develop sensibly and efficiently. We must work within the rules and I would appreciate your involvement and assistance in changing our rules and improving them via our Fraser Coast 2031 process. Let’s all work together to make the Fraser Coast a happy place to live.

But from the moment we were asked to put on our spectacles until the credits rolled there was not a cough, a comment or a distracting noise for the entire 180 mins. This movie is a masterpiece and I highly recommend it. Without spoiling it for you the plot is not a complex one and involves a common theme revolving around a fight to preserve ‘home’. Avatar is gripping because the special effects are so special that we are literally transported to an alien world. A world so beautiful that I wish it was real! I won’t say more but I am sure you will be impressed if you go to see it. Do experience it in 3d as I can’t imagine it being as impressive in ordinary 2d.

One of my presents for Xmas was the latest Dean Koontz release called ‘Breathless’. I always enjoy the latest Koontz but this story grabbed me from the start and is one of those easily read impossible to put down stories. I enjoy authors who successfully combine science or history etc with their fiction writing and Koontz does so smoothly and quietly as the end of his story nears. Koontz actually questions Darwin’s theory of evolution in such a way that I will now have to go and do some research about earth history.

 As always a beautifully written story that left me uplifted and feeling very glad that I share this planet with gifted talented people who can both entertain me but educate me and give me cause to think!

I hope that you are enjoying the rain and that you are getting a chance to recharge those batteries. I also hope the retailers who work very hard at this time of year are doing well.

We bought an aviary from Maryborough, dismantled it carted it home and re assembled it. We purchased wood and wire from Bunnings.  Graham unleashed his masterful carpentry skills to build a suitable run and voila we had our new chook pen. The Guinea’s have stayed locked up for 3 weeks to ’settle in’ and yesterday was release day. With some trepidation I unlocked their door early yesterday and we sat and watched as the flock got to know the yard and the two ‘oldies’.

After a while I decided all was well so came into the house. Next think we heard was the sounds of terrified Guinea’s calling. They yell very loudly when frightened. I glanced out the bathroom window to see a bloody fox chasing the birds right across the lawn. Graham and I both ran outside chasing the fox. The fox dropped the Guinea it had chosen for brekky and went in one direction while the poor Guinea went straight out into the forest. Even though we searched several times during the day we could not find her. So the remaining 5 new plus 2 older birds survived and I was ever so relieved when they went back into the chook house last night to roost. The 2 older birds roost in local trees and didn’t join the new birds last night.

This morning I once again ventured into the forest on my way home from the beach and found a sad pile of feathers. Alas it seems the wiley fox did get his dinner. So how do I trap a fox says I?

This morning I am leaving the birds locked in till later in the morning and after my tramping around out the back, I hope the fox is long gone but I live in fear of a return visit. I didn’t think for a second that a fox would be active in the daylight and so brazen. The other sad thing is that we selected 2 paler coloured ‘light grey’ Guinea’s and 4 ordinary speckled ones and it is one of the pale ones that ended up being fox food. So life in down town Dundowran Beach is stressful! I am still very sad to have lost a poor innocent Guinea and very worried now about the remaining Guinea’s safety.

On a happier note on Saturday I visited the Tiaro Landcare Field Day which was excellent. Well worth the trip and I thoroughly enjoyed the stalls, animals, food, beautiful fresh air and wonderful people.

On returning to the Bay I then attended a meeting to gather support to start up a responsible ‘pet adoption’ group. I believe the group is well positioned to make a major impact on our abondened and stray dogs (and maybe cats) problem. The group is committed to responsible money management and will use fostering as the means of caring for animals that need a new home. Another meeting to formalise the name, ready for Incorporation, is scheduled for lunch time next Saturday. If you are keen to help stay tuned. I will post details later in the week.

Council is in trouble again it seems for making life difficult for a builder. Council does have rules and these are designed to protect the community not make life difficult. While bureacratic red tape can be time consuming, expensive and very frustrating, there are usually very good reasons for the rules that we have in relation to building houses. For example if we allow houses to be built on land that can flood then who will get the blame if the house eventually is floooded? I am sure it won’t be the builder it will be Council! If you do run into difficulties with rules that seem unreasonable or unfair contact Councillors so we can be aware of your problems.

Lastly I am thinking about all the negative press Council is receiving about our perceived lack of assistance or leadership in relation to economic development. While I do think that our role is primarily as a facilitator for business development I was thinking yesterday that maybe there is some potential for our region to start targetting ‘green’ industries. Maybe we can find some room in an Industrial area and launch a ‘green zone’ and attract start up sustainable focussed industries here? There was an article in the weekend press about new inventors designing residential wind power generators etc. Now wouldn’t it be good to attract these inventive people to start up there businesses here? I will talk to my fellow Councillors and see what we can do. Transition Towns might be able to help as could our local Chambers of Commerce.

Cheers for now, Sue

Our Guinea Fowl.

After the trip to Woodford I have been based at home cleaning, weeding and reading in that order. Graham and I are going horse riding tomorrow arvo at Susan River so if I survive I will report on the experience later this week. I have taken the plunge and am trying out contact lenses. My deteriorating eye sight is age related and wearing glasses has been a reasonably recent necessity. My partner and sister both use contacts so I thought why not! Well the biggest challenge has been learning to get them in correctly… well I will rephrase that…. getting them in at all! I am improving today being day 4 but it is still a challenge to get this tiny piece of delicate plastic situated onto my eyeball.  Now today is my first day with one lens for short distance in one eye and a lens for long distance in the other. Yes I can see but everything is not crystal clear. I will try this system for a couple more days to see if the old grey matter adapts. It works for Graham so I live in hope. If I don’t adapt I may give up and go back to glasses as when wearing contact lenses just for distance I will still need reading glasses and then of course sunglasses. My regular glasses had 3 different strengths for short, long and in between and were tinted and non glare and I could see very clearly. The whole experience is interesting and I just hope my brain adjusts to this long and short eye thing as once in, the contacts are no trouble at all. Aren’t the trials of ageing wonderful!!!!!!

Next on my list of things to do for myself was getting thinner. My weight has slowly been creeping in one direction which isn’t down! For Christmas I received my wish of a Wii Fit and I love it. A huge range of interactive exercises and games and it keeps track of my weight and I’m enjoying using it. The feedback is great and even jogging on the spot is interesting as you watch the little guy in front of you and enjoy the scenery via the television. For someone like me with a competitive streak and an ability to get bored doing anything repetitive like exercising the Wii Fit is great.  Lastly I’m giving the Tony Ferguson program a go and so far it is easy to follow. No hard sell and a logical approach to food intake. So maybe in a  couple of months there will be less of me and I will see OK without glasses! Time will tell.

So enough about me and to work issues. Council has our Corporate Plan out for comment now and I encourage you to have a peek and let us know what you think. Two residents have commented to me personally so far. One resident is worried that the environment is not emphasised enough and the other thought the aims were all good but possibly a bit broad. Please take the time to let myself and/or Council know if you think we are on the right track. The plan is available here http://www.frasercoast.qld.gov.au/council/Public%20Submissions%20page.shtml or from the link on the Council home page.

Over the next few days I will try and tweak this site and try and set up another email address for correspondence. I think it best to commit to adding a comment to the blog section regularly so am planning to promise to post a comment 3 times a week as a minimum. A comment every day is just too hard to do I’m afraid. If you think this is a good idea or not, do let me know. The blog is supposed to help me communicate with you all so please let me know if you think categories need changing or anything else to make the site work a bit better. Till next time I hope this finds you in good health, Sue

I wish you all a safe, healthy and happy Christmas and New Year holiday season. I am off to the shops to finish my Christmas shopping and then to concentrate on some rest and relaxation I hope that this time of year is a joyous one for everyone and that it brings you a time to relax and be content. I am lucky to be able to share Christmas with my partner Graham and my daughter, and to know that my son is safe in Harbin, China. He gets to experience a very ‘white’ Christmas with temperatures below freezing at this time of year.

Thank you for your support throughout the year and for your interest in community issues. It is pleasing to note that the great majority of comment I receive via this site is positive in nature. My last post was a bit ’scathing’ I have been told so I look forward to stepping back and having a rest during January. My New Years resolution is to get less upset about negative media stories!

I do want to wish all of you a peaceful time. Graham and I are most likely to try out some of the ’staycation’ offerings and be tourists within our own region this year. Aren’t we lucky to live full time in a region that so many other people can only holiday in! Lucky us!

Do take care, drive that little bit more slowly to arrive safely into the New Year.

As always, many cheers, Sue

As we walk through the vine forest to the beach I notice the tide is retreating and the sand is still coated in a layer of green. A usual occurrence at this time of year. The shoreline is dotted with birds. Two pure white  egrets (I think..) poke their beaks into the muddy sand for breakfast as do our small group of pied oystercatchers which have been visiting these last few weeks. Their bright red beaks and feet and black and white plumage make them easy to spot. Seagulls and sandpipers complete the picture along the waters edge but looking inland, along the edge of the forest, I spot ‘Ozzie1′ or ‘Ozzie2′ (yes we have two Ospreys but I can’t tell them apart) resting in his favourite dead tree. High up he sits surveying his terrain. Rainbow bee eaters dart between the shoreline Casuarinas and butterflys flit this way and that.

Looking down I notice many Ladybirds on the sand. More and more of them are here so I’m careful where I place my feet. These little red and black insects are here in their thousands it seems. I wonder what draws them to the beach as I have not noticed them before. They fly away when I approach or sit and reorganise their wings folding and unflolding them. I hope that they find what they are looking for.

I can’t help but feel uplifted. The last few weeks have been tough ones so it is with a renewed sense of pleasure in the simple natural beauty of life that lifts my spirits. I enjoy the peaceful sounds of nature and the sheer beauty of this small patch of preserved vine forest and beautiful beach. Once again I rejoice at the simple pleasure of being so very lucky to live here and to be able to walk along such a lovely stretch of coastline whenever I please.

Just before I reach my pathway home I hear a drone. The sound is a plane approaching. I stop and look to the sky expecting one of our frequent light planes to be travelling past but no, I can’t see anything. The noise increases and as I look further afield I watch as a large jet approaches. The bright orange Jetstar logo and silver fuselage glint in the morning sunshine. I wonder how many people are visiting us for the first time or returning to the city that they call home. I think about the many plane trips I seem to make these days and how easy it is to travel to places far away. The contrast between my silent, peaceful natural surrounds and the noisy but magnificent silver aeroplane is stark. I admire how clever mankind is. That we can build such beautiful machines to fly through the skies and take us to every far corner of this, our planet Earth, is a reflection of the cleverness of human achievement.

I return home wondering how we can maintain the right balance. How can we preserve and protect everything that is good and wonderful and beautifully natural upon our planet while at the same time digging the earth and damming our rivers to supply the food, water and minerals that we use to survive and proliferate? How many people is the right amount of people that this planet can support and how do we decide? How many noisy planes can fly over my otherwise serene neighbourhood before I feel annoyed and invaded by ‘progress’? The big questions and the little questions. I return home thankful that I live here. Our Fraser Coast is truly a place to be treasured.