Did you miss the NWTN community consultation with Brisbane City Council? You’re not alone.
Editor’s note: We are writing this whilst on holidays. Forgive us if there are any typos….and merry walkable christmas to you all.
The North West Transport Network consultation has now closed. $10 Million in federal funding was spent on a business case for this project. This project aims to respond to the challenges with the traffic on the North Western side of Brisbane, with the first stage of community consultation running from November 2019 to February 2020. Stage 2 consultation opened in November, and ended today, Monday 21st December, with 5 key proposed projects and various options to these projects presented to the community.
We will hasten to add that we don’t support community consultation before Christmas, and especially this year. Brisbane residents have had more than enough on their minds coming to the end of the year, and are entitled to switch off and focus on family, and focus on catching their breath from what has been an extraordinary year. After bushfires, COVID and two elections, a pre-Christmas consultation has not been timely. Queensland Walks contacted fellow organisations who would normally provide input into major projects, and given that this project will have a big influence over the mobility and permeability of the suburbs and neighbourhoods we had concerns about the timing. Many of these well-respected organisations were not aware of the project, or able to submit due to the time and the short consultation period. Subsequently we wrote to council:
‘Consultation extension. Queensland Walks would like to note the timing of the consultation period for the North West Transport network. This consultation was released in November 2020, with face to face consultation in December and closes on Monday December 21. Given the timing, and the nature of extraordinary events in 2020, the scheduling of this consultation closure is prohibitive to many residents and stakeholders. We also have concerns about the process and outcome with the community consultation and especially the data collection for the Stafford community location. As such, Queensland Walks encourages Council to extend the consultation period to allow for residents and stakeholders to be able to get a better understanding of the proposed 5 options, and respond. We recommend that the consultation is extended until March, similar to the Green Bridges consultation extension.’ Queensland Walks. ‘ Read Queensland Walks full project submission here.
Project information :
In late 2019, Council invited residents to share feedback about travel behaviour and where transport services and infrastructure could be improved, to help understand transport challenges in the area.
A range of potential transport infrastructure ideas have now been developed, including:
Here is one of the quick polls on the Brisbane City Council website. Disappointingly, we couldn’t see an option of selecting Active Transport. We’re disappointed that 3 out of the 5 options in the ‘Quick Poll’ are a support and a vote for roads, road widening, and local network options that will include road widening and intersection improvements. All of which will not, or will have little benefit to active transport or encouraging more people to walk and support residents who rely on public transport to move about our beautiful sub-tropical city.
Let us know what you think!
