Ministerial Statement: Consultation committee formed for CoastConnect

[ozbob]

Minister for Transport, Trade, Employment and Industrial Relations
The Honourable John Mickel
06/11/2008

Consultation committee formed for CoastConnect

Minister for Transport John Mickel has welcomed the community coming on board the CoastConnect bus project on the Sunshine Coast.

Last night thirteen people volunteered to play an active role in further community consultation through a newly formed committee to identify the best public transport design solution aimed to deliver fast, frequent and reliable public transport to the booming region.

"The formation of this committee is a tremendous step forward and highlights the State Government's commitment to ensuring the communities voice is heard in matters relevant to them," Mr Mickel said.

"Nominations were received from a range of business owners and operators and residents from the community, and the final make-up of the committee will be decided this week.

"The new community committees formation represents a new level of involvement for local people who want to have their say."

Mr Mickel said the Queensland Government was listening to the community and this committee has come about as a result of that.

"Local member Fiona Simpson's attempts to block this important public transport development on the Sunshine Coast shows lack of leadership, lack of foresight and most importantly lack of commitment to her community," he said.

"Her belief that 2 per cent public transport patronage on the Sunshine Coast is acceptable shows her lack of understanding of transport challenges facing the Sunshine Coast.

"While the consultation period has officially ended, the Government recognises there are elements of the draft alignment that did not fit all of the community's expectations.

"We've received over 260 submissions as a part of the consultation process, along with the feedback from the meeting held last night.

"The project team has also met individually with many small business operators and local residents in the area.

"These meetings are continuing, and project team members are in the area daily gathering feedback and talking to potentially affected stakeholders."

Mr Mickel said the aim of the planning phase was to consult with the community on a draft proposal. It aims to use community feedback, ongoing technical studies and more detailed traffic modelling, to refine the plans.

"More detailed work on CoastConnect will take place over the coming months, including the preparation of a Concept Design and Impact Management Plan," he said.

< ENDS >

6 November 2008

[mufreight]

More to the point perhaps Ms Simpson is aware of the existing governments intention to reneg on the Sunshine Coast rail link.
It would seem that despite all the hype and spin the completion of the Caboolture to Landsbrough track duplication project is to come to a halt with the commissioning of the Caboolture section at Xmas so a little more honesty and less duplicity by Minister Mickel would be helpfull and might even gain him a little respect from the electorate.
The formation of a consultation committee has all the hallmarks of another be seen to be doing something (to pacify the electorate while doing nothing) delaying tactic

[Arnz]

There are already some groundworks started north of Beerburrum and South of Beerwah* (with the overpass construction) with markings and some properties already having earthworks done in preparation for the Beerburrum to Landsborough re-alignment and duplication.

[mufreight]

It would seem that the earthworks referred to were included in the original contract of the Caboolture Beerburrum section but we shal wait and see.