Queensland school drop-off zones: council, government pass the buck

BRISBANE City Council and the Queensland Government are passing the buck over an issue that threatens the safety of our schoolkids.

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CHILD safety is under threat at almost 50 Queensland schools because of an ongoing feud between the Brisbane City Council and State Government over who should build school drop-off zones.

Neither jurisdiction is accepting responsibility for building and maintaining the drop-and-go zones, with the stand-off sparking criticism from education groups who say the bickering needs to stop.

Brisbane City Council has tried to return ownership of the 45 existing drop-and-go zones back to the state due to maintenance concerns.

Council infrastructure committee chairwoman Amanda Cooper said the zones were a state responsibility, as they were located on Education Queensland-owned land.

“Council wrote to the Minister for Education in 2014, expressing concern that the State Government was failing to take responsibility for Education Queensland-owned land at these 45 schools and expecting council to pick up the bill for maintenance costs,” she said.

School drop-off zones have become a buck-passing exercise in Queensland.

However, Education Minister Kate Jones accused the council of playing politics with children’s safety.

“I am angry Brisbane City Council is threatening to walk away from their longstanding role in maintaining road safety for children around our schools and local streets,” Ms Jones said.

“Schools are in the business of education. Local councils are responsible for traffic and road safety on local roads.”

Queensland Association of State School Principals president Michael Fay slammed the bickering.

“In the interests of student safety, I call on both the BCC and State Government to work together to make sure student needs are put first,” he said.

Under guidelines formed in 1997, councils have had the responsibility for designing, costing and building the infrastruc-ture, with funding split with the state, which gives the land to the council.

But councils say the arrangement is unreasonable, and passed a motion at the Local Government Association of Queensland conference in October to lobby the Government to abandon the guidelines and “replace it with a more balanced agreement”.

Parents have been campaigning over the MacGregor State School pickup and drop-off zone.

LGAQ president and Sunshine Coast Mayor Mark Jamieson said councils were prepared to work with the State Government to arrive at more sensible arrangements.

“The heart of the issue is that councils are not part of the state’s planning and approval processes for their developments, including schools, and are then left to deal with the ongoing infrastructure cost, maintenance, safety and amenity issues,” Cr Jamieson said.

Last month The Courier-Mail revealed the ongoing dispute was delaying a much-needed drop-and-go zone off the busy main road that passes MacGregor State School.

P&C member Waikay Lau, who has campaigned for the facility for 10 years, said students’ lives were at risk because the tiers of government could not find a way forward, despite a 50/50 funding commitment from both sides.

Council opposition leader Peter Cumming backed the existing “longstanding” funding arrangements and called on the council to “fulfil their obligations”.

P&C member Waikay Lau has been leading the charge at MacGregor State School.