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Glenda Pickersgill
Joined: 03 May 2006
Posts: 367
Location: Kandanga
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 Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2011 12:38 pm Post subject: GT 5/3/2011 No future- town needs new plan Mary Valley |
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http://www.gympietimes.com.au/story/2011/03/05/no-future-town-needs-new-plan-mary-valley/
| Quote: | Town needs new plan
Arthur Gorrie | 5th March 2011
KANDANGA, the town Mary Valley people call “ground zero” after the Traveston Crossing dam proposal, needs a future and it needs a plan.
Guy Burnett and Julie Worth say Kandanga is dying and needs a plan if it is to survive.
Craig Warhurst
KANDANGA, the town Mary Valley people call “ground zero” after the Traveston Crossing dam proposal, needs a future and it needs a plan.
And, according to resident Julie Worth, it needs a plan “for the next 20 years, not just the next 20 minutes”.
Ms Worth was part of a delegation to Gympie Regional Council this week, seeking council help to improve communication between the Kandanga community and the district’s major post-dam landowner, the Department of Infrastructure and Planning.
Accompanied by fellow residents Guy Burnett and David Sims, Ms Worth told the council’s works committee meeting of concerns that the government, which she said had greatly damaged the town’s economy, was not repairing the damage.
The buy-up of Mary Valley farm land and other property for the proposed dam had greatly reduced the productive value of the area and cut its permanent population, resulting in a full-scale depression affecting town businesses.
“The butcher’s shop has nearly given up, the pub is struggling. There are not enough people,” Ms Worth said.
Other businesses were struggling because their premises were owned by the government and this prevented them from upgrading.
“The post office would like to expand and the snack bar needs cold rooms instead of their fridges, but they can’t upgrade because they don’t own the premises.”
Mayor Ron Dyne said it would be difficult in the short term to arrange real discussions with the department because it has had “umpteen re-organisations and is currently going through another one”.
Planning committee chairman Ian Petersen said help for Ms Worth’s pro-Kandanga group would not be expensive for the State Government because the group was “self-funding to a large extent”.
But Ms Worth told the meeting her group was “not looking for a handout”.
“We’re looking for the government to do something with its assets to plan for the future,” she said.
Presenting a draft plan to steer the district to 2031, the group said since the dam proposal was announced the town had experienced “almost five years of uncertainty”, including 16 months since the no dam decision.
“(Kandanga) is the most impacted township with regard to land purchased for the project,” Ms Worth said.
“Of the four retail businesses in Kandanga, three are uncertain about their future because their properties have been purchased and future lease arrangements are currently unknown, which is an impediment to planning.
“The productivity of the farming sector has declined and employment has been lost. The change of land tenure has adversely impacted the economies of the region and the commercial sector of the town. School enrolments have decreased and the community is seeking to reinvigorate.”
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