COUNCIL VOTES ON NUMBER OF KEY PLANS, PROJECTS
THE Western Downs Regional Council held an ordinary meeting where councillors voted on a raft of plans that affect the daily lives of residents and the numerous industries operating across the region.
Below is a rundown of the main points from the meeting at the Miles Customer Contact Centre on Wednesday.
Tara Memorial Pool Project
A unanimously accepted-report was tabled to update the council on the Tara Memorial Pool Redevelopment project.
The report noted the new pool plan was 75 per cent completed and should be finalised by the end of September.
Cr Megan James moved to ensure the community was informed about the ins and outs of the controversial project, passing a motion for the council to come up with an engagement strategy.
After asking if members of the Tara community had seen the new architectural and engineering design, Cr Ian Rasmussen was quick to say “there’s nothing to show, it hasn’t been developed yet”.
At the next council meeting councillors plan to decide on who will build the $6.4m project – if successful, construction will start in the new year.
Origin Energy Roads Deal
The council closed the meeting to the public to discuss an agreement between WDRC and Origin Energy in relation to a road and infrastructure report.
All councillors voted in favour to enter into the Road Infrastructure agreement with the energy company.
Traction on Room2move multimillion-dollar mining camp
The multimilliondollar development of 1292 accommodation units at Miles, which has been dragging its feet since 2013, was granted another application extension.
Cr More expressed concern over the delay in construction and cast doubt on whether the accommodation would ever be built.
Although Cr Rasmussen said the last time an extension was knocked back they were taken to court and forced to reverse the decision at taxpayers’ expense.
“I don’t want to put that cost on our ratepayers again,” he said.
Cr Peter Saxelby and Cr George Moore voted against the eight-month extension.
Confidential Tarcoola Update
The council received a confidential Community and Liveability report where an update was provided on the Southern Cross Care-run Tarcoola Aged Care Facility and the council-run Carinya Aged Care Facility in Miles.
The only information the public was privy to was that all councillors voted in favour of the report, and Cr George Moore noted the transition process at Tarcoola was going well.
Accommodation approved for unapproved feedlot
The council is in the process of allowing Australian Country Choice to build a 65,000 cattle feedlot north west of Moonie.
Before approving the development of the feedlot, all councillors unanimously voted to approve a material change of use for 12 nonresident units to be built on Lot 15 (DY698) along the Moonie Highway.
Although a report notes it won’t be official until a material change of use is granted for the feedlot.
Miles Chamber of Commerce coughs up 14k
After a unanimous vote, the Miles and District Chamber of Commerce were ordered to pay the council back
14k in unspent grant money.
The WDRC also provides funding to the chambers in Dalby, Chinchilla, Tara, Wandoan.
Investment opportunity in Dalby squashed
The most contentious debate at the meeting was about a 3,384sq m parcel of land at 14 Jacaranda Court, Dalby. The proposed development was to subdivide two residential lots into three, one 1,965sq m lot and two 709sq m lots.
After knocking back an application in March for the land to be split – history repeated itself with Cr S Saxelby, Smith, and James failing to pass the motion, three to six.
Once divided, two of the lots were deemed too small, contravening the WDRC’s planning scheme.