Servo fills need in expanding suburb
A GROWING suburb north of Townsville is set to finally have its own service station, after overwhelming support from residents for the proposed development.
Residents of Bushland Beach and Mount Low, who currently have to travel about 7km to Deeragun along the Bruce Highway to get to the nearest servo, resoundingly supported the development, with 119 people making submissions in favour of the plan.
The proposed service station, to be located at the corner of Lynwood Ave and Mount Low Parkway just across from Coles, was approved by Townsville City Council on Tuesday with conditions.
Bushland Beach mum Christina Smith, who lives close to the future servo, said the area was in desperate need of more services.
“I’d rather stay in this area to do my shopping … there needs to be more out here, a service station, a cafe, there needs to be more out this way,” she said. “There needs to be a few more things to make it a good community.”
Bushland Beach, according to latest data, has more than 6000 residents with population growing by just under 1 per cent year-onyear, but the servo is expected to service expanding residential developments like North Shore and Bushland Grove.
The proposal by Bundaberg-based Wessel Petroleum, which operates more than a dozen BPS across Queensland, includes five car wash bays, a 24/7 convenience store and two dog wash bays, with two or three staff to be employed.
A pedestrian crossing and footpath will also need to be relocated and redesigned to make way for the servo, which is being built on land originally zoned residential, though the site has remained undeveloped for more than a decade.
Five submissions were made against the proposal, citing possible increases in traffic, the loss of the private land as an unofficial pick-up and drop-off point for parents as it is close to public bus stops used by school buses, noise and need among others.
Councillors, in noting traffic concerns, agreed that any future operational work applications made by Wessel Petroleum, particularly if it impacted traffic management or pedestrian access issues, would need to come to council. Wessel Petroleum was contacted for comment.