Toowoomba deputy mayor Rebecca Vonhoff slams seven-month delay to vegetation management report in fiery council meeting

Deputy mayor Rebecca Vonhoff has taken aim at the council over extensive delays to a key report, calling it a “damn disgrace”. Watch the video here:

Deputy mayor Rebecca Vonhoff has lashed council bureaucrats over a seven-month delay in developing environmental protections for the Toowoomba region, calling it a “damn disgrace” to ratepayers.

Dr Vonhoff secured enough support from colleagues at last week’s ordinary meeting to continue work by the council’s planning department into the “management of significant vegetation”.

The motion, which passed 6-4 during a heated session of council, would see the findings folded into the TRC’s already drawn-out development of its new planning scheme to replace its 13 year old document.

The two points in the motion were reiterations of a similar vote in December, where Dr Vonhoff’s plan for a temporary local planning instrument (TLPI) to raise the level of assessment for development in “areas of ecological significance” was quashed.

Deputy mayor Rebecca Vonhoff. Picture: Kevin Farmer

Environmental activists and local residents have been urging the Toowoomba council to take action on protecting mature trees and wildlife corridors, citing numerous examples of developers being allowed to legally clear huge swathes of land.

The report issued by the December motion was due this month but has not materialised yet, prompting a searing rebuke from Dr Vonhoff during last Tuesday’s meeting that also included frustrations about the realities of being a councillor.

“This job has some terrific parts to it, some real privileges and some beautiful important parts to it, and it’s also got some real challenges,” she said during debate.

“We give up time working on other things pursuing other careers, some of us could be working in businesses, we could be spending time with our family.

“Some of us have health impacts because of this job, some of us even have security impacts because of this job.

“But what we expect and what the community expects, is when there is a motion passed by this council it’s not parked on a shelf and that council officers pick and choose which motions they deliver.

“We expect, and the community expects if there is a motion passed by council it gets done.

“It wasn’t done and I think that’s a damn disgrace because what are we doing here if all of those sacrifices that we make don’t result in a motion being delivered?

“It makes a mockery of all of the hard work that we do in this job.”

Dr Vonhoff’s motion encountered resistance from councillors who believed that including the report’s findings in the future planning scheme was an overly hasty approach.

“The last one said bring a report to council and I agree with you that has not been done, but we can’t sit here and go this work has not been done so let’s just put it straight in the planning scheme,” councillor Tim McMahon said.

“I want us to be involved in this, I think officers want us to be involved in this, the community wants us to be involved in this and it would be very unwise for us to say we’re not going to look at a report on the details, we’re just going to delegate and go straight to the planning scheme.”

Councillor Gary Gardner, who is also a noted local developer and executive chairman of FKG Group, believed the motion was an attempt to impose further regulations on the creation of new homes.

Councillor Gary Gardner. Picture: Kevin Farmer

“I don’t see why the public should be burdened with over-regulation because of something the council officers didn’t do,” he said.

“People have got to accept the fact that the Land’s going to be 400-450 square metre blocks going forward, you cannot have 20m gum trees sitting in the middle of a (block).

“You can’t get insurance, it’s dangerous and no one wants that.

“I don’t know what we’re doing here – it’s a disguise for something we rejected a while ago.”

Dr Vonhoff’s motion passed 6-4, with councillors McMahon, Gardner, Kerry Shine and Carol Taylor all voting against it.

Originally published as Toowoomba deputy mayor Rebecca Vonhoff slams seven-month delay to vegetation management report in fiery council meeting