Community & Business
8 November, 2023
Yungaburra projects set for review
A FEASIBILITY report for two projects at Yungaburra will be presented to Tablelands Regional Council in the hope they can be included in its next Budget review.
Cr David Clifton is pushing for a new pedestrian crossing for Fig Street and proper access for people with a disability to the toilets in Bruce Jones Park, but they are not currently listed on council’s 10-year Capital Works program.
Cr Clifton explained there was some urgency to undertake the pedestrian crossing, which was approved by council in 2021, given the high number of motorists using Fig Street to access the Rankine housing development.
He said the pedestrian crossing had not eventuated because of hold-ups with land tenure over the footpath and funds that were originally allocated to do the work were now not sufficient to do the project.
Cr Clifton said traffic counts conducted in 2017 recorded 1100 vehicle movements per day using Fig Street but this had no doubt increased markedly since then.
“Motorists now bypass Keough Place and all go around there (Fig Street) into the Rankin estate which is growing rapidly. It is likely the vehicle movements are much higher,” he said.
He said when council officers began to look at the work in 2021, it was discovered there were boundary title problems with the placement of footpaths which required a detailed survey and the creation of an easement to formalise the footpath area.
“This matter took some time to complete due to the need to survey the area, negotiate with the landowner, establish the easement and to confirm with the Queensland Government, through DTMR, both the easement as well as the crossing design due to its closeness to the Gillies Highway,” Cr Clifton said.
“It took a lot of time to do that and by the time we got to that, there wasn’t any money for the project.
“Currently the amount allocated for the Fig Street crossing is significantly above that which is now required and additional funds will need to be sought within the Budget review process which will be undertaken in December.”
Cr Clifton estimates that $245,000 would be needed to install the crossing.
He also stressed action was needed to upgrade the access to the toilets to cater to the 2000 people who attend Bruce Jones Park for the monthly markets or hundreds who attend events at the new rotunda.
“At the time the rotunda in Bruce Jones Park was being constructed, there was extensive discussions with council to provide disabled access to the toilets which are in the car park,” he said.
“The community has built the rotunda and put in the flower baskets and now they conduct regular musical activities there and many are elderly folk – all those people have to negotiate steep stairs and the earthen bund, left over from the era when the park was a railway yard, to get to the toilet.
“It’s really not satisfactory at all.”
Cr Clifton said no funds had been allocated to create proper disabled access to the toilets, and asked that “fully documented scoped diagrams” for both the toilets and the pedestrian crossing be provided to council for the Budget review in December.
