[Forum] I read with interest all the articles and forum letters Peninsula News edition 445 regarding the proposed emergency dredging of the channel entrance to the Brisbane Waters.
The overwhelming point which I read from these statements was that it is of an urgent nature that the dredging is done sooner rather than later. This is a given, but I notice one glaring omission that there is no clear dollar value put to the 50/50 funding proposal. There is an upper limit to the funding available but no one has said what the council is prepared to put in. Council has been stating for months now that they believe the dredging is the State Government’s responsibility but due to the urgent nature of this problem they will apply for the 50/50 funding, for urgent dredging works.
Will this council (majority Labor) still be toeing the same line if at the next State Election the now Opposition is elected into power? Will the Labor councillors put the same pressure on their own party to get the full funding for the dredging and ongoing maintenance of the channel? It is all well and fine to make statements about what needs to be done and by who. I just hope the same noise is made if a change of government happens at the next election. Finally, there has been no mention about what their term dredging means.
Will it be the waste of time again having an excavator on the back of a barge digging a hole in the wet sand which will just fill in again like the last two efforts, or will they get a proper dredge like the type Peer Dalland mentions in his forum letter? The spoil needs to be put back on the beach otherwise this again will be an exercise in futility. This problem won’t go away until sufficient funds are put into it and as my father used to say do it once and do it well.
Email, 28 May 2018 Carl Veugen, Umina