MEDIA: Carpark battle lands in court

The Courier Mail WEEKEND EDITION December 11-12, 2010 NEWS Page 19 Sarah Vogler Council's Reporter

We have two copies of The Courier Mail WEEKEND EDITION December 11-12, 2010. One copy has as the first story on page 19 Carpark battle lands in court the other copy has as the first story on page 19 Man charged over shooting. The below is the story whether you got it in your copy of today's Courier Mail or not.

(Note at this stage, we have filed an 'application' for declarations and an injunction.)

BRISBANE City Council has been slapped with an injunction in a heavyweight battle over plans to turn part of a heritage register-listed memorial park in to a carpark for its $1.5 billion Northern Link tunnel project.
On one side is the council, which claims there is no alternative but to use part of Anzac Park at Toowong as a carpark for tunnel workers.
On the other is the Friends of Anzac Park community group, complete with a Queens Council, barrister, solicitors, engineers, academics, and environmental scientists, which claims council is being bloody-minded in not finding a better option.
They are well-resourced, determined and yesterday group spokesperson Joanna Freeburn said they were lodging an injunction in the Supreme Court in an attempt to stop council in its track.
"The injunction is about a failure to comply with the requirements of the State Development and Public Works Organisation Act, " she said.
She said while residents were invited to lodge a submission over initial plans to place the carpark in Anzac Park, they were not allowed to do so after council made more changes.
"The Coordinator-General is making a decision on a document that we have not had an opportunity to respond to, which is contrary to the Act,"Ms Freeburn said.
"Its like playing on a soccer field, scoring a goal and then being told by the ref 'actually just before you scored that goal we moved the soccer field to a secret location and we are not telling you where it is'."
A council spokeswoman said council believed it had met all requirements for the application for project change under the relevant law.
Deputy Mayor and Infrastructure chairman Graham Quirk said council was committed to keeping local street free of workers' cars.
"This carpark will only be temporary, and it will take workers cars off local streets so we don't see the same problems that occurred with airport Link," he said.
Ms Freeburn said the park had heritage and environmental significance and it was common for the ashes of returned servicemen to be scattered there. She said having 900 cars moving in and out the park on a daily basis would also prove dangerous for the children that frequent the area.

Friends of Anzac Park Toowong reiterate that there are alternative sites for the car park to be located and want the proposal retracted from the BCC Application for Project Change. We know that the Coordinator-General’s Condition Appendix 1, Schedule 3, 18(k), The construction workforce must not park in local streets. A dedicated and adequate construction workforce off-street parking area must be provided, must be satisfied. We, of course, want local streets free of construction workers’ cars and have suggested alternative sites. Even if it is temporary (4 years), a car park within a heritage listed park is not a compatible use of the park for many reasons. Four years is not very ‘temporary’ and there are no guarantees the park is really going to be 'temporary'. We have already been misinformed and misled by our local councillor Cr Peter Matic over this proposal. 'Temporary' or not, once you make changes to a heritage park like this there can be no going back. We want the park conserved the way it is.

If readers and Graham Quirk want to see a real 'problem' that occurred with Airport Link then have a look at our earlier blog posting Monday December 6 2010 - Do you want Anzac Park, Toowong, to look like Diggers' Drive, Kalinga Park, Toombul - annihilated by Airport Link? Save Diggers Drive. It's too late! It's been annihilated by Airport Link. What happened to Kalinga Park is what will happen to Anzac Park if the Coordinator-General approves the proposal as satifying the condition for workforce car parking.

They really just don’t get it do they? That they just can’t ride roughshod over the law and the public just because they want to build a tunnel! We've had to take legal action to make them see this. The Coordinator-General was served today and the BCC will be served on Monday. The BCC knows they have it coming to them. The Application was filed on Friday and is a public document.