Billboards calling for submissions on new Redland Bay school on land closed to public

Billboards calling for public comment on a new school to be built on one of the state’s busiest roads have been erected on land closed to public access. WATCH OUR VIDEO

The state government has erected two billboards away from the public eye, calling for community comment on plans to build a new primary school on one of the state’s busiest roads.

The billboards were put up at Redland Bay in April on roads closed to the public since September.

To read the billboards and find out about the plans, members of the public must break through bollards and a wire fence around state government road works or breach “road closed” signs.

The state government has erected two billboards at Redland Bay.

One billboard, advertising the plans, is on Serpentine Ck Rd, 20m behind a 3m-high wire fence and bollards, on a section of road closed off to the public since September.

The billboard is in front of vacant farmland but is cordoned from the public by roadworks, bollards and witches hats.

The other billboard is in the adjacent Scenic Rd, which has also been closed off to public access since September.

Both call for community comment on the proposed Redland Bay prep to year 6 state school for 1234 students, which would be the second in the suburb which has no high school.

Within the first two weeks of the billboards being erected, no public submissions were lodged about the school, which will have a mix of one and three storey buildings.

Plans for the proposed Redland Bay State School which is set to open in 2024.

Plans show prep to year three students would be in a junior campus with years 4-6 in separate, yet linked precincts.

An administration building, resource centre, multipurpose hall, a central building and outdoor play areas, along with an oval, outdoor courts and recreational play areas will be built for a 2024 opening.

Carparking and set-down zones would also be constructed.

The proposed primary school will be on the notorious Serpentine Ck Rd, the main state government road into Redland Bay from Logan, where the speed limit was 90k/h before it was closed off to the public.

Redland Bay residents said they would lodge official complaints about the signs not being in the public domain and being inaccessible behind bollards on roads prohibiting public access.

Resident Belinda Thorpe said she was concerned there was no road crossing for primary school children walking from the school at Serpentine Ck, Beenleigh Redland Bay Rd to the new Shoreline housing estate.

The state government has erected two billboards away from the public eye, calling for community comment on plans to build a new primary school on one of the state’s busiest roads.

Ms Thorpe said she was also concerned there were no footpaths or cycleways on Serpentine Creek Rd or Scenic Rd and no public transport.

A traffic report compiled for the state government by PTT Traffic and Transport engineering forecast 2031 peak-hour traffic volumes at the Serpentine Creek Rd and Scenic Rd intersection would be 14,995 vehicles a day.

The traffic report also found the school would need 177 carparking spaces and designed access for a school dental van.

Vehicle movement into and out of the school were estimated to be 422 in and 361 out) during the weekday morning peak hour, with the reverse during the afternoon.

Submissions to the state government about the new proposed Redland Bay State School close before May 25.

Scenic Rd which has been closed off to the public since September is where the state government has erected a billboard away from the public eye, calling for community comment on plans to build a new primary school on one of the state’s busiest roads.

The proposed school site is less than 150m from where Redland Bay mother-of-three Mersina Axiom, 36, died in February 2020 when her mini-van hit a Subaru sedan, which had clipped a ute before veering into oncoming traffic.

Plans for the school show a bus stop on the opposite side of Scenic Rd to the school, in front of a 4000-lot Lendlease housing estate, similar to Logan’s Yarrabilba.

In March, Redland City Council voted to allow land adjoining the Lendlease housing estate to be used for the school.

An officer report to the council said an upgrade of Scenic Rd would be required to ensure the transport network safely and efficiently serviced the area.

“However, given the state is responsible for the intersection upgrade with Serpentine Creek Rd, which is currently underway, and with Education Queensland intending to operate a school on the adjoining lots to the west (and fronting Scenic Road), the risk to the development is considered low.”

In the 2021–22 state budget, the state government announced 10 new state schools to cater for growth in 2023 and 2024.

The Redland Bay school is slated to be built and operating by 2024.

Education Queensland and the Department of State Development, Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning were both asked for comment.