DEVELOPMENT

THE proposed large Defence Housing Australia development on the old rifle range on Mt Lofty needs very careful consideration by residents and council.

I encourage readers to become more informed about this matter by a visit to the Toowoomba Regional Council’s enquiry centre and its web site.

As a nearby resident with university training in urban geography and environmental planning, I have begun to prepare a detailed submission.

Over the last few months, we have been subjected to a very tightly controlled OPAQU consultation run by the DHA.

They were not prepared to speak at any meetings organised by local residents or allow local residents to display their questions or opinions about the development.

Toowoomba residents should be asking the DHA why they need to do this development. Is the Defence Department going to increase staffing at their Oakey and Cabarlah barracks?

For months, the DHA and their public relations contractors refused to answer these questions at their “information days”.

Under questioning in a Senate estimates committee hearing in Canberra last year, the DHA conceded that something less than half the houses in their Mt Lofty estate would be occupied by military families.

If the DHA was simply providing housing for military, why are they offering to sell houses to the general public to rent back to the DHA? This is a commercial enterprise.

S. JONES, Toowoomba