I received a letter the other day from Councillor Helen Abrahams as a follow up to the public transport survey I submitted. I always thought that the Labor side of the council had somehow muted themselves over Brisbane public transport, though after David Hincliffe sent out the survey, and now that we get a follow up from Helen (Councillor for Dutton Park, Chair Environment and Sustainability Committee), it looks like they've finally found the power of their 17 Labor councillors to combat the scurge of the 8 economic rationalist conservatives (the Liberals). It is good to see. The environment movement is gaining strength. Labor certainly is far from perfect but atleast they don't value money over life itself as the Libs seem to.
Helen's letter follows.
Thank you for returning the recent public transport survey, and indicating your support for Council to be focusing more on public transport.
At the Council meeting on 12th September, Councillors supported a move by the Deputy Mayor to invest an additional $12m to purchase 19 additional new compressed natural gas buses and fund additional services. But as you know, we need to do a lot more to make public tranport a viable alternative in Brisbane. [Only 7% of journey's made in Brisbane are by public transport]
Brisbane is at a crossroads, with more than $6 billion worth of tunnels, roads and Bridges either underway or under consideration. At the same time, Council's funding on public transport is just $48.5M per annum. Lord Mayor Campbell Newman now wants to duplicate the William Jolly Bridge, with a toll bridge linking Hale Street to South Brisbane.
Brisbane must decide, do we want to spend another $200M on a toll bridge or do we want to invest in a world class public transport network?
You may have seen in the media that there is widespread opposition to this plan from residents of South Brisbane and surrounding suburbs, and from those who believe Council is putting too many resources into big road projects at the expense of public transport.
Many residents of my ward are questioning the wisdom of investing more than $200M in a toll bridge for mainly local traffic, when money could instead be invested in bus services to address congestion across the city.
Please find attached a form letter from one of the groups opposing the Hale Stret Toll Bridge project, which can be used as a submission on the Draft Impact Assessment Statment (IAS).
If you feel the same way as many members of my local community, may I suggest you sign it and return it in the envelope provided by 13 October 2006.
All the Councillors of Brisbane City Council will then take your comments into account when deciding how to proceed with the Hale Street Toll Bridge proposal.
Thanks again for your support for public transport.
Regards
Helen Abrahams
I had already submitted my opinions to the IAS and think it is fantastic that the Council had sent this letter and provided a stamped envelope to send the submission in.
The form letter is very much like that referenced in my submission (and included as part of) so I won't include that here.
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