We are residents of Doonans Road in Grandchester and would like to express our concerns over the Bubbling Springs Recreational Park to be developed at the end of our street.
We do recognise that the park would increase tourism in our area, however the negative impact of increased road traffic to our street would be sorely felt by its long-time residents.
To give you some perspective – Doonans Road is a dead-end unsealed dirt road that services the local landholders and residents.
The road is poorly surfaced at the best of times with multiple low-lying water crossing points and is often shared with farming machinery and cattlemen moving cattle from paddock to paddock.
Doonans Road is not suitable or safe for the significantly increased traffic volume that the recreational park will draw.
The dust factor is one concern, and the width of the road is another.
Grading of the road surface often leaves loose gravel on the road edges making it unsafe to pass two cars breadth, and it is slippery to unfamiliar drivers of the road condition.
There are other options for the development to be accessed through Spicer’s own private land and serviced the Grandchester – Mount Mort Road, which is a sealed road.
However, accessing the area they intend to develop from Doonans Road would likely be more cost effective for the developers and we all know that what impacts the bottom line best goes, regardless of its impact on their long-time neighbours.
Poor communication and consultation with the locals regarding this matter from Spicers and the Ipswich City Council has been noted, and little consideration has been made for the impact on their lives.
— Donna Jackwitz, Grandchester.
