WHAT A PARADISE!

One of the things I love about living in the Brisbane Valley is waking up on misty, foggy mornings. Sure, it is a hazard to drivers, so turn your lights on and be careful.

According to wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fog the difference between fog and mist is the density.  Fog is visibility of less than 1 kilometre, and mist reduces visibility to less than 2 kilometres.

But how can you resist these fresh, still beautiful mornings and their glittering spider webs.  Not to mention the clear blue sky it promises for the rest of the day.

What a paradise!

Kathryn Gossow

Wivenhoe Pocket

Sustainable employment for future generations

It seems that everywhere I travel in our region there is yet another new residential development site, but I have seen very little in the way of commercial or industrial development to provide employment opportunities.

If people have to travel to work out of the area each day, there will be more congestion, more pollution and more stressed out families.

There is a shopping centre in Plainlands and another coming soon to Fernvale, but the employment opportunities they offer are mostly low skilled and low paid. The new super prison in Gatton Shire will provide good employment possibilities, but we need much more diversity.

The State Strategic Development Plan identifies ‘preferred commercial development zones’, but these are no-where near sufficient and not all are available for development.

I have discussed this issue with many local people and several local councillors and they all agree that more needs to be done to develop employment growth in the region.

If housing, employment and recreational resources were all available to local people within a short distance of each other, we can develop stronger and more cohesive communities, the local economy prospers, and there is much less damage to the environment.

We need a better plan for developing sustainable employment in the region in consultation with local residents and business people as a pre-condition for any further residential development.

The alternative is that our region will become a vast, sprawling and, in my view, rather ugly dormitory suburb for Brisbane, Ipswich and Toowoomba, with all the social problems that go with it.

We need to take pre-emptive action now to make our region a better place to live and work for now and for the future.

Paul Heymans

Wivenhoe Pocket