MONEY WOES WON’T HOLD BACK LANSDOWN
THE Lansdown Eco-industrial
Precinct will be good to go when the first proponent is ready to break ground, regardless of whether the federal government stumps up all the cash needed.
Mayor Jenny Hill has revealed that if the council is forced to fund the remaining money needed to get the land ready for proponents, it will.
This comes as Queensland Pacific Metal’s (QPM) Townsville Energy Chemicals Hub (TECH), to be based at Lansdown, was declared a prescribed project.
Cr Hill said Townsville City Council was in the planning stages for a project funded as part of the October 2020 state election campaign.
“We will be working in parallel with companies like QPM to ensure that we bring infrastructure on as they need it,” Cr Hill said.
“At the moment, we are processing full speed ahead – if we have to fund the infrastructure because there’s a shortfall from the federal government, I think that is what we will have to do.”
She said if full funding was not achieved, the council might need to go back to the proponents and impose a levy. A development such as Lansdown could help the federal government achieve its greenhouse gas targets.
“A place like Lansdown, if we fully develop that, I believe we can really achieve what the federal government is looking for – we can turn the head of manufacturing down south, which is using coal-fired power stations and bring it North using renewables to create new jobs for our community,” Cr Hill said.