Truth about SEQ growth plan: Vision aplenty but no money to achieve it
South-east Queenslandās civic and business leaders are increasingly vocal in their criticism of the major blueprint meant to guide the regionās growth over the next 20 years, saying it is worthless without firm commitments to build the roads, railways and other infrastructure needed to make it a reality.
Ipswich Mayor Teresa Harding and respected urban planner Laurel Johnson zeroed in on the South-East Queensland Regional Planās flaws at a function run by business lobby the Suburban Alliance on Friday morning.
Harding called for commitment to better public transport and a sustainable policy on waste management as priorities for Ipswich, citing a rail link between Ipswich and Springfield as a priority.
Johnson, a member of the state governmentās housing supply expert panel, said the ādecouplingā of the SEQ Regional Plan from related commitments to infrastructure investment was a major problem for the region.
She said the sense of urgency that drove the first regional plan 16 years ago was all about avoiding the so-called ā200km cityā of rampant coastline development from Noosa to the Tweed.
The original aim was to push some of the regionās future development to the west, with commitments to provide the transport links, schools and town centres to make it happen.
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āThere was a decoupling of that commitmentā¦, so what weāve got is all this ambition and vision for growth to push west with no transparent commitment to infrastructure provision by the state,ā she said.
Harding said Ipswich was the stateās fastest growing city as part of a shift to āperi-urbanā areas away from Brisbane, with new residents expected to push its growth rate to 7 per cent per year over the next 20 years.
Current growth is running at around 100 new residents a week.
āThe suburbs in our eastern corridor between Ipswich and Springfield continue to lead the growth,ā she said.
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āThe Ripley to Springfield corridor is projected to accommodate 30 per cent of all south-east Queenslandās dwelling supply over the next two decades.ā
However, she said Ipswich faced major challenges around waste, community services and transport.
Health and education services were not keeping up with demand, she said.
Growth was āclearly outstripping the delivery of reliable and efficient public transportā.
āBy 2041, 93 per cent of residents in the western corridor will continue to rely on private vehicles as a primary more of transport unless significant invest is forthcoming,ā she said.
āWhat we do need is a regional plan, supported by a long-term and collaborative plan for infrastructure delivery to math the government levers to future growth.ā
The city was also responsible for taking in 42 percent of the stateās waste, of which most was commercial and industrial waste, she said.
The spread of housing close to an expanding waste industry in Ipswich was creating an āunsustainable and unacceptable situation for our residentsā.
āWe are in a situation in our community where the state government could be forcing us to take in a waste to energy thermal incinerator within 700 metres of where people live,ā she said.
āHow would you like to have that kind of facility right next to you?ā
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