Message From Nicole
What's in the Budget Locally
City-Wide Budget Update
What's not in the Budget Locally
Graceville SCIP Parking Petition Update
 Useful Links:
WHAT'S ON

Babies, Books and Rhymes
Fridays 9.30am
Corinda Library

Mondays 11.30am
Annerley Library

Wednesdays 11am
Fairfield Library

Toddler Time
Wednesdays 9.30am
Corinda Library

Mondays, 10am
Annerley Library

Wednesdays, 11-11.30am
Fairfield Library

Children's Storytime
Thursdays 9.30am and Saturday 9.30am
Corinda Library

Tuesdays 10am
Annerley Library

Fridays 11am
Fairfield Library

Chelmer Station Kindy Lantern Parade
5pm Friday 17 June
Faulkner Park Netball Courts, Graceville

Book Launch - Angela and Her Boys by Helga Parl
10:30am Saturday 18 June
Fairfield Library

Friends of Sherwood Arboretum AGM
10:30am Sunday 19 June
Meet near Joseph Street garden shed
Sherwood Arboretum

Chelmer-Graceville Kindergarten Open Day
9 - 11:30am Friday 17 June
Chelmer-Graceville Kindergarten
40 Acacia Ave, Graceville

St Joseph's Fete
9am - 3pm Sunday 17 July
St Joseph's Primary School
28 Clewley St, Corinda

Evening Book Club
6 -7pm Thursday 16 June
Fairfield Library

Cloud Basics*
10 - 11am Friday 17 June
Annerley Library

Email Basics
1 -2 2pm Friday 17 June
Fairfield Library

Refugee Week Storytime
9:30 - 10am Saturday 18 June
Ideal for children aged 2-5 years.
Annerley Library

Growing an Edible Garden*
12:30 - 2:30pm Saturday 18 June
Corinda Library

Internet Basics
11am - 12pm Wednesday 22 June
Corinda Library

Book Chat
1 -2pm Wednesday 22 June
Fairfield Library

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Storytime*
9:30 - 10:15am  Saturday 25 June
Ideal for children aged 3-7 years
Annerley Library

Fairfield Writers' Group
10:30am - 12pm Saturday 25 June
Fairfield Linrary

Literary event: The BFG*
9:30 - 10:30am Tuesday 28 June
Ideal for children aged 7-10 years
Annerley Library

Meet Jodie Lane*
10:30 - 11:30am Tuesday 28 June
Corinda Library

Children's Storytime: My Two Blankets with Irena Kobald*
2 - 2:30pm Wednesday 29 June
Ideal for children aged 4-8 years
Corinda Library

Make Your Own Bean Sprout Farm*
10:30am - 12pm Tuesday 5 July
Annerley Library

iPad e-books
10 - 11am Friday 24 June
Annerley Library

11am - 12pm Wednesday 6 July
Corinda Library

Manga Workshop with David Lovegrove*
2 - 3pm Wednesday 19 June
Ideal for children aged 10-14 years
Fairfield Library

Introduction to MaKeyMaKey*
2 - 3:30pm Wednesday 6 July
Ideal for children aged 9-12 years
Corinda Library

Wordpool Workshop with Sophie Tarrant*
Ideal for children aged 8-13 years

3 - 4:30 Monday 27 June
Annerley Library

2 - 3:30pm Friday 8 July
Corinda Library

Sports for Little Kids
3:30pm - 4:30pm Wednesdays
Sherwood Arboretum

Clublink
Wednesdays 3:30 - 4:30pm
Not sure what sports club your child should join? Come along and experience a different sport each week.
Sherwood Arboretum

Tabata and Cardio
5:30pm - 6:30pm Wednesdays
Full body workout
Ken Fletcher Park, Tennyon

Mums Fit Camp
9:30am - 10:30am Wednesdays
Graceville Riverside Parklands

9:30am - 10:30am Thursdays
Sherwood Arboretum

Boxing and Fitness Circuit*
9:30am - 10:30am Wednesdays
Bookings required
Dunlop Park, Corinda

Low Impact Fitness and Pilates*
9:15 - 10:15am Thursdays
Bookings required
Graceville Riverside Parklands

Fitness Circuit
3:30pm - 6:30pm Wednesdays
Sherwood Arboretum

Balance Bikes
9:30am - 10:30am Wednesdays
Sherwood Arboretum

Tai Chi
8 - 9am Tuesdays
FREE except on public and school holidays, which will incur a charge of $5
Jollimont St Car Park, Sherwood Arboretum

GOLD: Tai Chi
1:30pm - 2:30pm Mondays
Sherwood Neigbourhood Centre

Tai Chi
8 - 9am Sundays
FREE except on public and school holidays, which will incur a charge of $5
Robinson Park, Fairfield

ACT-ivate Children's Club
FREE
3.30pm - 4.30pm Fridays
Ken Flectcher Park, Tennyson
Juniors (3-5yrs) and Seniors 6-10yrs
Contact 0411 246 487 for more info

Deep Water Running
8am - 9am
Yeronga Park Pool
Costs pool entry*

Tabata and Cardio
Full body work out
5.30pm -  6.30pm Wednesdays
Ken Fletcher Park, Tennyson

Zumba Fitness
9am -  10am Wednesdays
Yeronga Memorial Park

Aqua Aerobics
11am - 11:45am Saturdays
Yeronga Park Pool

Beginner Swimming Project for Adults
11:45am - 12:45pm Saturdays
11am - 11:45am Saturdays
Yeronga Park Pool

 

Items marked with * require bookings.

Contact the relevant library or
3403 8888.
MESSAGE FROM NICOLE

Hi everyone

The Council Budget for 2016-17 was handed down today and it is starvation rations for Tennyson Ward suburbs this year. 

There is no good news. Apart from seven street resurfacing projects, there is no money for drainage or backflow valves, no money for park and playground upgrades, no money for minor road safety upgrades particularly around schools and no money for new bikeways.

Instead, Tennyson Ward residents are copping rates increases of between 3% in Oxley and 7.4% in Chelmer (the highest in the city).

In my view, the Lord Mayor is gouging revenue from Tennyson Ward suburbs with massive rates hikes without investing in the vital infrastructure and services our community needs. It is highway robbery. 

It is also a double whammy, as land values are rising after the floods, in some suburbs more than 30% last year and now compounded by a massive 6-7% rates hike.

Sadly, the Lord Mayor talked about delivering a budget "focusing less on politics and more on delivering for Brisbane" but it appears it is a budget for his 'team' not for the whole of Brisbane. As a result, it lacks fairness in the distribution of funding and projects around the City. 

More details about what is in the budget (this bit is very short) and what wasn't funded are noted below.

As always I will ensure that the small amount of discretionary funds for footpaths, parks and community groups are stretched as far as possible.

More can and should be done and I am determined to keep fighting for our local area. More than any other level of government, politics should simply not be a consideration in allocating resources to suburbs around our City. I am pretty cranky about this budget, which is really a betrayal of our community by the Lord Mayor who is supposed to have a city-wide focus. 

Regards, Nicole

WHAT'S IN THE BUDGET LOCALLY

Road Resurfacing

Brougham St, Fairfield $35,000

Castle St, Fairfield $43,000

Cliveden Ave, Oxley $133,000

Fairfield Rd, Yeerongpilly $1.4m

Gowrie St, Annerley $178,000 (now Coorpooroo Ward)

King St, Annerley $334,000 (now Coorpooroo Ward)

Mildmay St, Fairfield $185,000

Orcades Rd, Yeronga $70,000

Stamford St, Yeerongpilly $91,000

Kerb and Channel

Equity St, Annerley $38,000

Gowrie St, Annerley $139,000 (now Coorpooroo Ward)

Festivals and Grants

Sherwood Street Festival

Lord Mayor's Suburban Initiative Fund $55,000

Vegetation Management

Hall Ave, Corinda $19,000

Pratten St, Corinda $38,000

Park and Footpath Trust Funds

$448,000 for new footpaths, playground and minor parks improvements (this will fund about  five new footpaths and two park upgrades).

STOP PRESS - This year we are actually going backwards with our parks, as Council is removing three pieces of play equipment from the Graceville Memorial Park Playground due to their age and safety concerns. This playground has been listed for some years for a capital upgrade, but no funding has been provided by the Lord Mayor to replace and upgrade the playground equipment. 

Libraries

Corinda, Fairfield and Annerley Libraries open until 4pm Saturdays from February 2017.

Bridge and Culvert Reconstruction

Arnwood Plc, Annerley $155,000 (now in Coorpooroo Ward)

Oxley Creek Vision

During the election, the Lord Mayor promised to spend $100 million developing along the banks of Oxley Creek. As locals know, Oxley Creek is highly degraded and neglected by Council. If this funding was going into rehabilitating and revegetating the Creek to improve the health of the waterway corridor, this would be a positive. 

However, today the Lord Mayor announced that over the next four years he will spend $15 million on this initiative and expects to raise revenue of $15 million from unknown sources. I am concerned this might be from developers or other commercial activities. 

In his budget speech, the Lord Mayor said he would establish an Oxley Creek management authority to guide the project stretching between the Brisbane River and Larapinta. He says the aim is to create recreational spaces for kayaking, rowing, aviaries, Eat Street style markets, urban farms, sports facilities and economic hubs. It is the last vague committment that is the real worry because what an economic hub is, is not explained. 

I have been asking questions in the Parks and Environment Committee about this project and the Lord Mayor and his team are saying nothing about the detail. This is a project I will be watching carefully and I will keep you up to date as more information comes to hand. 

 

CITY-WIDE BUDGET UPDATE

Budget at a Glance

  • total budget expenditure $3billion
  • average rates increase 4.7% or $16.2 per quarter for owner occupiers
  • pensioner rates rebates - full pensioners $967 and part pensioners $451
  • existing pensioner water rebates up to $300 pa, but remissions to be cut in the future
  • $90m for road resurfacing (down from $100m)
  • $9.3m for new gutters
  • $24.5m for libraries
  • $3.7m for a new Mt Coot-tha enhancement program
  • $122m for public transport
  • $22.2m for road and intersection upgrades
  • $128m for waste management
  • $89m for drainage management and enhancement (down from $100m)
  • $1.4m for Business Hotline
  • 100% green power
  • $71m for park upgrades (down from $168m)
  • $15m for new and improved pools
  • $10m in a range of grants for community and sporting clubs
  • $10m graffiti management
  • $1.1m Lone Pine Koala Research Centre
  • $20m bushland acquisition
  • $2.3m Witton Army Barracks Park (no road or Walter Taylor bridge funding)
  • $16m for Brisbane Metro Subway Business Case
  • $316m for Kingsford Smith Drive
  • $44m for stage one of Wynnum Rd Corridor
  • $30m for the Inner City Bypass upgrade
  • $8m for water fountains (outrageous given no investment in drainage and backflow valves)
  • $16.9m for ferry terminal upgrades
  • $7.3m for bus  stop disability upgrades
  • $22m for bikeways

Click here to view the budget online.

Comparative Budget at a Glance

Projects City-wide
$		 Tennyson
$		 Average per ward
$
Dog off-leash areas 534,000 0 20,538
Bikeways 22m 0 846,154
Drainage and backflow valves 24.1m 0 926,923
School safety projects 1.45m 0 55,769
Kerb and channel 9.3m 177,000 357,692
Footpath repairs 18.9m 83,000 726,923
Playgrounds 11.8m 0 453,846
Suburban traffic projects 23.6m 0 907,692
Road resurfacing 90 2.15m 3.46m

 

WHAT'S NOT IN THE BUDGET LOCALLY

Each year as your local Councillor I put together a budget submission based on feedback from local residents, community groups, schools, Council officers and my own observations.

Of the 180 projects submitted for funding, just 5 were funded by the Lord Mayor, who personally chooses which projects to fund each year. 

Some of the projects the Lord Mayor has refused to fund, in some cases for several years, include:

  • dozens of local drainage, playground, bikeway, parkland, creek and reserve projects;
  • safe school travel projects including around Graceville and Corinda State Schools;
  • footpath repairs to major pedestrian thoroughfares including Sherwood Rd and Oxley Rd;
  • a new Sherwood Rd dedicated off-road bikeway and footpath;
  • Annerley Junction and Graceville Fiveways shoping centre improvements;
  • backflow valves and local drainage for Yeronga, Fairfield, Graceville, Chelmer and Sherwood;
  • public toilet upgrades for Graceville and Annerley;
  • additional local bus services;
  • intersection upgrades - Oxley Rd / Cliveden Ave, Corinda, Graceville Fiveways,  and Ipswich Road/Venner Road 
  • the Venner Rd freight bypass.

A full copy of my local budget submission is available upon request from my office.

GRACEVILLE SCIP PARKING PETITION UPDATE

Thank you to those who let me know that Cr Simmonds had written to you regarding the SCIP. It seems that our efforts as a community have been heard!

On the face of it, the letter seems like good news, as the bays will be widened. However, I suspect the devil is in the detail.

Both the petition and my correspondence to Cr Simmonds were clear that our community is calling on Council to widen the indented car parking spaces (first sentence of the petition) and the width of the marked bays from 2.4m to 2.7m (second sentence of the petition). The attached letter, sent to Cr Simmonds prior to the petition being tabled, also raises a number of issues, which he has not responded to.

At this stage, it is not clear if Cr Simmonds is only widening the marked car spaces and not the indented bays themselves.

What is also unclear is which bays he is planning to remark Bank Rd or Bank Rd and Honour Ave as per the petition?

Widening the spaces is a great outcome, as we will be able to hop in and out of our cars more safely and easily. However, widening the indented bays will ensure we do not lose any car spaces overall, resulting in the best possible outcome. I am seeking to clarify this with Cr Simmonds as a matter of urgency.

In my view good policy and practical outcome should be the result of careful consultation and adjustment where needed.

It seems we are on the way to a good outcome but I really want it to be a great outcome for our community.

Thank you again for all your efforts and help in pushing for a better parking solution for our wonderful local shops. Please keep supporting the traders who have been dealing with the double impact of the SCIP and rail station construction. Without them I suspect we would be all very hungry and bored!