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Qld government upsets local councils - where is our democracy?
Residents of local communities are being denied rights to be involved. Although Logan and Ipswich local councils may be happy to accommodate state government's agent ULDA, many local residents are concerned that fast tracking timelines prohibit the necessary studies being conducted and shown to community for comment.
The Queensland government is trampling on the rights of local councils by grabbing control of planning, a group of Queensland mayors says.
The Council of Mayors in Southeast Queensland on Wednesday said the Bligh government's decision to take direct control of planning for a major development from the Sunshine Coast Regional Council was anti-democratic.
The comments followed the state government's announcement that it would allow the Urban Land Development Authority (ULDA) to assume control of planning for Stockland's Caloundra South development, which is planned to provide homes for 50,000 people on the Sunshine Coast.
The Council of Mayors chairman, Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman, said the Bligh government was trampling on the rights of communities across Queensland with the powerful but unaccountable ULDA.
"The ULDA is unelected, unaccountable and busily pushing the planning policies of unelected state government bureaucrats on local communities," Mr Newman said in a statement.
"Residents are being denied a say in the big debates about the future shape of their communities."
Melva Hobson, the mayor of the bayside council of Redland, near Brisbane, said the Caloundra South takeover was a backward step for sustainable development in southeast Queensland.
"The community's desire to deliver more sustainable communities is under threat if big developers can knock on the premier's door and have the whole thing overturned," Ms Hobson said in a statement.
Gold Coast mayor Ron Clarke said he was concerned about the influence developers had over the state government.
"A whole new city of 50,000 people will be developed with no community say and no appeals," Mr Clarke said in a statement.
"Whatever happened to the SEQ Regional Plan being a partnership between state and local government?"
The Council of Mayors promised to support the Sunshine Coast Regional Council in its opposition to the ULDA takeover.
Infrastructure and Planning Minister Stirling Hinchcliffe defended the ULDA's involvement in the Sunshine Coast project, saying the council had delayed action for years.
"Every day Caloundra South sits in the council's in-tray is a day without more local jobs and more affordable homes for local families," he said in a statement.
Mr Hinchcliffe said other mayors had embraced the benefits of ULDA.
"Southeast Queensland mayors like Paul Pisasale and Pam Parker have welcomed the ULDA into their local communities because they recognise the ULDA can fast-track affordable housing and jobs whilst delivering outstanding planning and environmental outcomes," he said.
The same environmental laws and policies applied to the ULDA as they did for councils and developers, Mr Hinchcliffe said.
Original source of article Qld government upsets local councils
Sunday, October 10, 2010
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New communities set to go forward - Ripley Valley, Greater Flagstone and Yarrabilba
Three new southeast Queensland communities have been given special approval to deliver up to 120,000 new homes.Premier Anna Bligh announced on Monday communities at Ripley Valley, Greater Flagstone and Yarrabilba had been declared urban development areas.
The areas, in Brisbane's southwestern and western growth corridors would represent 15 per cent of housing demands over the next 20 years, she said.The declaration means the Urban Land Development Authority (ULDA) now has 12 months to prepare development schemes for the areas.
Ms Bligh said early-release precincts in each community had been identified that could see construction of almost 3000 homes in a year.
The communities could potentially see 120,000 new houses at prices cheaper than comparative homes, she said.
"Instead of ad hoc building with one or two or three developers doing a little bit here or there, these big master-planned communities give us the chance to get infrastructure right, green space right and affordable housing mixes so that everybody has a chance of buying in," she said
New communities set to go forward published this story
Friday, October 1, 2010
Bioprospecting finds the toughest biological material and Engineering Hybrid Silks
By engineering silkworms to produce spider silk it's possible to make the super-strong protein fibers at an industrial scale, for applications in medicine like super-strong sutures or tissue engineering or even to make bullet-proof vests stronger than kevlar. The engineered silkworms aren't producing 100% spider silk yet, the silkworms are instead engineered with a copy of the spider silk genes fused directly onto the end of the natural silk gene, so that the silkworm produces a silk that is a mix of the two proteins. The spider/worm silk fusion, however, does have many improved properties, and new genetic engineering technologies can potentially improve this even further and create other novel silks not found in nature.
Follow original blog at this link.
Engineering Hybrid Silks : Oscillator
Exposed: Scotland’s toxic waste is poisoning Africa and Asia
A 'tsunami'of old TVs is being exported and illegally dumped in Africa and Asia every year with the help of organised criminal gangs, according to an investigation by the Scottish Government’s environmental watchdog.
“The Basel Convention, which all of the European Union has ratified, requires authorities to treat illegal traffic in waste as a criminal offence. Unless the perpetrators are given jail sentences they will simply pay the fines from past or future profits and start up business again under a different name.”
Recent changes like the switch from analogue to digital displays and flat screens had created a “tsunami of old TVs and computer monitors flooding ports in Asia, Ghana and Nigeria.” There they are often recycled in primitive and environmentally damaging conditions or simply dumped or burned if there is no market for it.
The Basel Action Network has set up a certification system for recycling companies which refuse to export electronic waste to developing countries. Known as “e-Stewards”, it certified its first UK company, in Surrey, last week.
Read the story at following link. Exposed: Scotland’s toxic waste is poisoning Africa and Asia - Herald Scotland News Transport & Environment
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