Townsville Community Voices

As part of their Recreational policy, the Community Voices team in the coming Council election have planned a series of community walks to help residents to become more aware of the neighbourhoods in which they live. 

Community Voices spokesperson Peter Hanley said that it was a sad fact that many people today could live in an area for years and never get to know what interesting things there were in the neighbourhood around them.

This month's walk will introduce walkers to one of Townsville's most interesting areas – the area in the inner city that backs onto Stanton Hill. Mr Hanley said the idea for the walk was inspired by a chance conversation with longtime Townsville Road Runner Joe Scott. "We had just completed a run set by Jo that weaved through the inner city area and we agreed that many people who live in the units we ran past probably had no idea of the interesting area that lay just outside their door", Mr Hanley said.

The idea for the walks was born. Each month we will meet in a different suburb and enlist the services of an experience resident to guide us through their neighbourhood.

Townsville resident Lisa Lloyd wants to recycle her waste but because of a combination of poor planning by Townsville City Council, and stubbornness by her body corporate committee, she just hasn't been able to.

 

Greens Mayoral candidate, Jenny Stirling claimed a significant victory today for the Greens in their campaign to stop the Chinese Aluminium Corporation (Chalco) from locating an alumina refinery in Townsville, within 3klms and upwind of the city of 190,000 people and smack up against the waters of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Lagoon. 

“A few weeks ago, I challenged the Mayoral front runners to state their position on Chalco. Now in a significant shift, both Les Tyrell and Tony Mooney are jumping ship on Chalco citing a mixture of economic, environmental and social concerns as reasons for their lack of support for Chalco,” said Ms Stirling. 

For the past few years, local green groups such as the Townsville Greens have attempted to find a solution to the rubbish problem at the well frequented fishing spot Boundary St Breakwater, calling on Townsville City Council to provide washdown and rubbish collection facilities for fishermen. Meanwhile up at Balgal Beach, residents there have been providing their own fishing facilities, cleaning up the creek and keeping it all as pristine as possible without help from the Thrungowa Council.

Today Jenny Stirling, mayoral candidate for community Voices calls for more than just lip service about being environmentally responsible and looking after the needs of fishing people:

“We have all heard Tyrell and Mooney declare their commitment to protecting the reef, keeping local creeks clean and promises from both sides about more fishing facilities”

The Community Voices team for the coming election have welcomed the proposal by Team Tyrell to light up the Castle Road to make it safer for pedestrians, but believe that it does not go far enough.

 Community Voices spokesperson, Peter Hanley, said today that what really needs to happen is for the road to be closed to traffic twice daily – say 5am to 7am in the morning and 5-8pm in the evening. "Lighting would certainly improve safety but the best way of making the road safer for recreational users is to separate walkers, runners and cyclists from car traffic" Mr Hanley said.

 Mr Hanley, a member of the Townsville Roadrunners, said that club members regularly run and walk up the hill with thousands of other Townsville residents. He believes that the times suggested would result in minimum inconvenience to drivers as in his experience, few cars actually use the road at these times.

22 February 2008

Community Voices team are set to reduce Townsville’s dependence on coal-fired energy.

Gail Hamilton, Greens candidate for the Community Voices team said that climate change poses a great threat and requires action at all levels of government.  Community voices aim to increase the uptake of solar hot water in Townsville homes, and encourage passive cooling measures .  Ms Hamilton said “we have a plan that by 2020, 80% of all homes in Townsville will be using solar hot water.”

Heating water uses a lot of energy. Electric hot water systems are still the most common in Australian homes, and an average system produces up to 4 tonnes of greenhouse pollution per year and accounts for nearly half of the electric bill.

Solar hot water systems have a payback period of between 5 and 10 years and Federal and State rebates have reduced the costs of installing solar hot water systems, however the uptake in Townsville is still slow, with around 5% of our homes having solar hot water, compared to Darwin, where around 45% of homes have solar hot water.

In addressing community concerns about rates and charges in the new amalgamated Council, Community Voices announces its list of priorities for an amalgamated Council after the election on March 15th.

“Initially our priority would be to manage the amalgamation in a responsible, transparent and equitable manner while still delivering effective, efficient, basic services to the community. In terms of the main focus of service delivery, our aim is to attend to give higher priority to the maintenance roads, drains, water and sewerage than is currently the case in either of the existing councils” said Jenny Stirling Mayoral candidate for Community Voices.

“We recognise that the amalgamation of the twin cities will reveal the true position of both Thuringowa and Townsville City Council's financial arrangements. Given that the amalgamation is a work in progress and community expectations are high, we cannot, in good faith, promise rate reductions without knowing the real situation” said Ms Stirling.

What we can promise is that if elected we will:

On behalf of the Townsville Greens and Community Voices members, Jenny Stirling congratulates Prime Minister Kevin Rudd for his historic announcement today of an apology to the Stolen Generation for the misdeeds of the past.

“This is a wonderful statement of reconciliation and the basis of a new era in Australian history which transcends politics, said Jenny Stirling, Greens mayoral candidate for TCC elections.

Given the rising costs of living, the rising costs of fuel and its impact on associated food costs, and ongoing community interest in eating and growing more healthy food, Community Voices propose to investigate the feasibility of establishing of a Fresh Food Hub for Townsville.
The aims of this policy are to: