ACTING Mayor Julie Talty has launched a robust defence of the Redlands’ environmental record, arguing the city is now facing unintended consequences for decades of conservation success.
During a wide-ranging interview with ABC Brisbane Mornings host Steve Austin, Cr Talty said increasingly restrictive environmental approval processes were creating barriers to community infrastructure projects, despite the Redlands being recognised as one of South East Queensland’s greenest regions.
“The problem that we find now is that because we have been extraordinarily good environmental stewards in the Redlands for the last 30 or 40 years, we’re being punished for it,” Cr Talty said.
Her comments come just days after the Federal Government cleared the way for the Birkdale Community Precinct and Whitewater Centre to proceed without further assessment under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.
While the Redland Whitewater Centre has become a lightning rod for environmental opposition, Cr Talty said the approval process highlighted broader issues facing councils attempting to balance conservation with the delivery of community facilities.
She pointed to the long-running proposal for regional sporting fields at Heinemann Rd, Mount Cotton, as an example.
“We haven’t been able to get through the EPBC process to build sporting fields for children because the EPBC process, once they decide that they are going to make something a controlled action, measures a sporting field in the same way that they measure an open-cut mine or an industrial facility,” she said.
“And they consider it to be an area that’s been expunged for wildlife and wildlife can’t use it.”
Cr Talty said that did not reflect the reality of how wildlife interacted with recreational spaces.
“Any common sense assessment will tell you that’s just simply not the case.”
The Acting Mayor also challenged what she described as a perception that Redlands was experiencing widespread land clearing.
“As far as bushland goes, that really is a perception rather than reality,” she said.
“There is no rapid clearing going on.”
However, in a notable distinction, Cr Talty revealed she still had concerns about tree removal associated with the recently approved Ormiston College expansion.
“I do have some concerns about that,” she said. “Personally, I would like to see a little less of that tree clearing.”
Cr Talty said Redlands remained one of the most environmentally protected regions in the State.
