Why is the new 2012 Brisbane City Plan being kept a secret from voters?

15 April, 2012 - 21:21 — webmaster

Lord Mayor Graham Quirk and his administration have created a 2012 Brisbane City Plan. It will direct all building and property development in Brisbane city and suburbs for at least the next 5 years. It will set out what you, your neighbours and property developers can build and where it can be built. It includes a 20 year vision for the built environment of Brisbane. It will impact every resident. Our sources tell us that the building industry and developers have been given access to this proposed 2012 Brisbane City Plan. This begs some questions.

Why is the proposed 2012 Brisbane City Plan being kept a secret from voters?

Isn’t it entirely reasonable to expect that the 2012 Brisbane City Plan would be available to people voting in the 2012 Brisbane City Council election?

Can we assume that the proposed 2012 Brisbane City Plan is being kept a secret from voters because Lord Mayor Quirk thinks a lot of voters won’t like it?

Seeking Lord Mayor candidate position on Community Consultation

3 April, 2012 - 07:21 — webmaster

An Open Letter to all Brisbane City Council Lord Mayor candidates:
 
What is your commitment to Community Consultation in Council
decision-making?
 
Brisbane Residents United (BRU) is an umbrella group representing many local residents groups. We are writing an open letter to all the parties at the Local Government Level to ascertain their level of commitment to effective Community Consultation.
 
What it should be:
The International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) has developed a suite of core values for use in the development and implementation of ublic participation processes:

  1. The public should have a say in decisions about actions that could affect their lives.
  2. Public participation includes the promise that the public's
    contribution will influence the decision.
  3. Public participation promotes sustainable decisions by recognizing
    and communicating the needs and interests of all participants, including decision makers.
  4. Public participation seeks out and facilitates the involvement of
    those potentially affected by or interested in a decision.
  5. Public participation seeks input from participants in designing how
    they participate.
  6. Public participation provides participants with the information they
    need to participate in a meaningful way.
  7. Public participation communicates to participants how their input
    affected the decision.

 
What it is currently:
In a recent SURVEY REPORT: South East Queensland Community Attitudes to Consultation & Engagement by Harbinger Consultants completed in August 2011, it is noted in that
"The findings of this survey affirm the currency of these core values from a community perspective. It is apparent from the survey results that such values are not well integrated with planning and development regimes. When people oppose development, they do so for complex reasons. The results of this survey reveal that 'protecting community interests' is the primary reason for participating in consultation. Such motivations are complex and cannot be simply characterised as NIMBYism or 'anti-development'. However, there are implications for negotiating change in built environments that are dominated by separate and inflexible land uses, such as suburbs and centres on transport corridors."
 

2003 Promise by Campbell Newman - Right Neighbourly

10 April, 2012 - 20:46 — webmaster

This newspaper article was penned by Campbell Newman back in 2003.
 
A COMMUNITY backlash is occuring in the suburbs of Brisbane.  Resident-initiated protest meetings, petitions and legal challenges against concil planning decisions are happening across the city almost every week, and the unrest is growing.
 
While it might be easy to dismiss this movement as the classic "not in my back yard" syndrome, the unprecedented community reaction surely indicates serious problems with Brisbane's urban planning direction.
 
I have witnessed the depth of feeling residents bring to their meetings, their preparedness to give up their time and money, and ultimately their frustration at having to protest to have their say.
 
Clearly it is time for a new approach - one that acknowledges the sophistication and maturity of our community, and residents' strong desire to be involved in the planning of their neighbourhoods.
 

Brisbane Residents United and Public Transport Issues

3 April, 2012 - 20:43 — WAYNE WILLIAMS

The primary target issue that led to the creation of Brisbane Residents United was to act a parent body for the numerous residents association that have sprung up in greater Brisbane caused by grievances pertaining to town planning.
 
The request of one of our affiliates to consider public transport issues resulted in BRU forming an association with the lobby experts in this domain Rail Back on Track.
 
Why recreate a wheel that is spinning and well oiled? We recommend that if you or your members have public transport issues to contact Bob Dow direct on rail@backontrack.org or view their website www.backontrack.org

Code Assessable - the holy grail of the property industry

13 March, 2012 - 21:12 — Elizabeth Handley

My name is Elizabeth Handley and I am President of Brisbane Residents United an umbrella group representing many local resident groups across the city.
 
We have become increasingly concerned by the changes to town planning and how it is administered by both major political parties at State and Local levels of Government; particularly the strategy to increase the number and type of developments that can be deemed 'Code Assessable'.

Call for LNP Policy Clarification

29 February, 2012 - 14:04 — webmaster

Brisbane Residents United are calling on the LNP to clarify the intent of a statement embedded within their policy announcement to the development industry.
 
You can download a copy of the LNP document at this location.
On Page 25. it states
"Explore alternatives to the traditional development application process saving time and money with less paperwork, quicker approval - and no third party appeal rights for complying developments in appropriately zoned areas"
 
Our intepretation is this would be implying a removal of rights for adjoining residents to take matters to court if council decided to approve a controversial impact assessible development application.
 
We asked for clarification of the LNP policy as it pertains to our concerns and received the attached response.
 
Our own town planning advisors have identified discrepencies in the LNP response and believe that this requires a more detailed explanation from the LNP before Brisbane Residents United could be supportive of the proposed change.

What is the real flood recovery funding story?

29 February, 2012 - 12:42 — webmaster

Brisbane Residents United would like to know when someone in government is going to take responsibiilty for how public assets will be repaired the next time we have a flood.  We were told by both State and Federal Governments that the last flood damage would be covered, but Brisbane City Council claims that everything is not being funded. 
 
We also understand that in the future insurance arrangements are supposed to be undertaken by the State Government, yet we cannot find if all items as claimed by Brisbane City Council are covered.  The answers to this question have a financial impact on residents and sorting it out, regardless of which level of government, or which side of politics our representatives hail should be a priority.
 
We have been following up on a particular resident group's request to investigate why Brisbane City Council is not having it's flood recovery work funded.  The answers from both State Government and Council show neither willing to accept responsibility for fixing things the next time a flood occurs.  About all everyone can agree on is that we will be affected by another flood at some point in the future.
 
You will find attached to this article a number of statements from both Brisbane City Council and the State Government.  We suggest you take the time to download and read them.

 
Brisbane Residents United are saying that this is not good enough from both Council and State Government.  It needs to be sorted out as soon as possible for our next flood event.

Consultation Rules of Engagement Resources

24 November, 2011 - 16:33 — webmaster

Keen to learn more about community engagement?
 
Look no further than this handy guide. The Institute for Sustainable Futures (UTS) has put together a 16-page list of  free resources for community engagement practitioners and policy makers from across Australia and beyond.

Introduction to Lord Mayor Candidate Ray Smith

12 October, 2011 - 20:39 — webmaster

BRU started the interview by explaining to Mr Smith that Brisbane Residents United (BRU) was established as an umbrella group for many of the smaller community groups around Brisbane. BRU already had are a large number of those groups involved and would be looking to attract as many of the smaller groups as possible to grow BRU.
 
BRU would be looking to represent fairly broad issues. We would not be going into individual group issues but would become involved where those issues reflected a much broader issue for all groups. One of the main concerns that we see for Brisbane residents at the moment is that town planning is very difficult for people to understand and it is seen to be very subjective. When people are called in for public consultation, it is already decided what is going to happen in a particular area and it doesn't matter what people say in the area the outcome of this planning is a foregone conclusion. This is one of our key issues and it has been going on for at least the last two Council administrations so it is a problem present with the administration of both of the major political parties.
 
RS: I hear that a lot
 

Standard for Community Consultation

31 August, 2011 - 11:36 — webmaster

We have gathered some documents related to best practice in community consultation.
 
These are the same standards that Council recognises for training as appropriate for community consultation and so provides us all with a benchmark for the process and outcomes of community consultation.
 
You should compare these standards to the way community consultation is being undertaken.
 
The following documents are provided

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