Water, water, everywhere, but not at Logan Village State School

Following up on a recent letter to the editor in a local publication, which asked the question of the Council authority which we now find ourselves forced to pay our rates to regardless of our wants, needs or aspirations, not much has happened.

That letter asked the question, "when will town water be connected to that school?" because after all it has been promised by Councils now for about twelve years that i know of and in particular at every election (the last 4).

Facts, we know that for an Upgrade that is desperately needed to the business precinct in Logan Village, town water is necessary and that a new development for an over 50's accommodation lifestyle resort of over 200 dwellings will need and pay their share for that water as well and that has begun with the basic earthworks now happening.

So you have to wonder why a delegation from Logan City Council (perhaps the Mayor and an officer) visited the School and told them it was too costly and that they may have to wait up to two years.

Even the lowest of intelligent people (which is obviously how we are perceived by this new Council) would know that if two developers are footing the bill to get that water to within 500 meters of the school, it makes sense to make that connection with at least a 100mm main at the same time to actually save the ratepayers quite a bit of money.

Now I understand the developers in question have no problem with that happening and in fact are happy to help out, so what's with the Logan City Mayor and her two year wait, and is this more of the clandestine occurrences we saw last Christmas with the "Logan Village Master Plan" which was scrapped, but could so easily come back .

Lets hope not.

Rates; Valuations; and Objections.

The Minister is crowing about our usual apathy and "couldn't be bothered" or "what good will it do" attitude to making an objection to the outrageous new valuations, and quite possibly some could have been lost in the post, or eaten by dogs or something, but nevertheless, fewer people made those objections than in previous times.

So I'm guessing that my local area was a little different to the majority of the new Loagn (formerly Beaudesert)where values almost doubled and are almost at the sale price for houses on that land, which is quite amazing.

Here is some of the ministerial statement:

A record low number of objections have been received for the 2008 round of property valuations issued by the Department of Natural Resources and Water.

Natural Resources and Water Minister Craig Wallace said his department this year issued over a million valuations in 59 local government areas in Queensland.

"From over a million valuations NRW received only 6000 objections," Mr Wallace said.

"This equates to just 0.58 per cent of valuations - a joint record low with last year when 0.57 per cent of valuations drew objections.

"It is well below the 1.63 per cent of objections received after the 2006 round."

From 1999 to 2006 the number of objections was consistently well over 1 per cent.

There is more Labor Government backslapping in that statement and I'm loathe to relate it as it is irrelevant.

So I pose the question, If you didn't make an objection, and if rates will be based on the valuation, and rates increase due to the mathematical equation worked on that value, will you be pissed off when rates increase ?

I objected, I doubt that it will make a difference, I think it is the beginning of rating us out of rural residential and the preparation of our area for the expansion of the urban footprint at sometime in the future, but I will be pissed when my rates go up, particularly when I look at Logan and see how much money seems to be wasted by that Council.

Traffic Chaos at Greenbank State School

I am reluctant to make comment because this particular topic is so political and reeks so badly of favours being done that I feel dirty broaching the subject.

The Councillor that oversees the area in which the school exists came up with this plan quite a while ago and it was published in the local papers at the time (for those of you who keep them or just clippings) and drew the ire of environmentalists , ratepayers and Taxpayers all of whom will lose if it goes ahead because the crux of it is to move the main road over into the Greenbank Military Training Camp.

First, the Greenbank Military Training Camp is a highly diverse environmental area and even though the area across from the school is used primarily for accommodation it is the tip of the ice-berg and would set a precedent for future removal of sections for other purposes.

Secondly, It is the only plan considered, and will cost millions ( It may even be cheaper to relocate the whole school) because the moving of the road will still have to link up with the existing bridge and that means there is a high probability that a short cut will add another hard corner to that section between Newbieth Road and the bridge.

Several people have made comments about the behaviour of parents and children being dropped off and picked up and this latest incident where a young boy has been mildly injured by running (reported in the local press ) out into the side of a car, is an example of this and shows that having parking and drop off areas across the road is high on the list of causative factors.

Also there seems to be a mentality that because it is children involved, the whole world has to come to a stop and allow parents total right of way to do U-turns, stop and drop whilst still on the carriageway, and stop in congested traffic to turn into car parks across the road, all of which make the problems worse.

However, all the real problems aside, (and this is where it starts to reek) it is the Councillor who is at the top of the list in my opinion, making promises and going public with a costly and inappropriate solution and even starting steering committees to have her way regardless of common sense or expense, and as usual it seems this Councillor has instigated a course of action that makes everyone else responsible for an outcome, that makes everyone else except her have to do the work and also get the blame if it doesn't work out.

The person making accusations toward The federal Member, who has been there a few months as representative appears to be a person who assisted the Councillor with her election campaign, and there can only be one reason for those public rants against this Federal Member, to put pressure on him to talk to the Federal Member in charge of the Military to have a piece of the Training Camp given to Main Roads.

Now some of the very smart people in the local district can't understand why houses on the same side of the road as the school haven't been bought when available to use for parking, (that would be too easy) and even have an entry off Newbieth Road.

So far This has come to a child being mildly injured, the publicity machine getting into gear about it and trying to lay on a guilt trip about whose fault it is, and of course another "steering committee" (probably loaded with carefully selected people to ensure the desired outcome ; removal of a section of an environmental and military area) which is a good name for this type of gathering because it usually is convened to address a particular issue and then is steered by someone to another agenda, I guess we'll see.