Fence fears fuel fury: ‘Wall could fall on kids’

A Gold Coast homeowner says he has spent nearly a year calling on council to fix a problem he fears could hurt children or pedestrians.

A GOLD Coast homeowner wants City Hall to move quickly on feared slumping of council land threatening his concrete boundary fence before it falls on his kids or hurts walkers.

Arundel tradie Chris Cassar has been pushing for the Gold Coast City Council to do something about it since October.

A report was finally done into the slumping in April and he’s still waiting on a fix.

Mr Cassar said the failing embankment at the rear of his property had affected the structural integrity of the wall and he fears it may “collapse on my kids”.

He bought the home in Petworth Court five years ago but said in the past year he’d noticed cracking on his boundary wall getting worse, with cracks also on coping tiles around his pool.

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Chris Cassar fears the structural integrity of his wall has been compromised by slumping council land. Picture: Glenn Hampson.

“I spoke to my neighbours and they too think the embankment behind us is failing but said they hadn’t got anywhere with the council in 10 years so dropped it,” he said.

Mr Cassar contacted the Gold Coast City Council, which owns the land at the rear of his property, in October last year to get an officer to inspect the nature reserve embankment.

The reserve backs on to the now closed Suntown landfill site on Captain Cook Drive.

Mr Cassar fears the wall could injure his children if it collapses. Picture: Glenn Hampson.

Mr Cassar said it took numerous attempts to convince council to “finally agree” to commission a geotechnical engineers report and this “finally” happened in April.

“(They) originally tried to say it was a State Government issue, which it’s definitely not,” he said.

The report found the stability of the rear embankment appeared to be compromised and that slumping had occurred.

“It is recommended a detailed stability assessment of the rear batter (the uniform side slope of a cutting or an embankment) be undertaken to determine a remediation plan, but it is likely that toe loading and flattening of the batter may be required to increase the stability of the rear batter,” the report says.

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Photos of the back of Mr Cassar's wall from A GCCC commissioned geotechnical report.

Mr Cassar said it had been three months since the report had been commissioned and he was “fed up” waiting for council officers to fix the problem.

“I’m concerned for the safety of my four children, what if the wall collapses on my kids when they’re in the pool. Locals also frequently use this area to walk their dogs and my fence is a safety hazard,” he said.

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Aerial of the site from a GCCC commissioned geotechnical report on 39 Petworth Court

“All I want to know is when they are going to fix and stabilise the embankment so I can remove my back fence and construct a compliant fence. I’ve already got everything I need to build the fence, I just want to make sure it’s built on stable ground.

“I pay my rates, I’m a good citizen and all I want to do is protect my family. I’m not looking for compensation. Just hurry up and fix your land council.”

A council spokesman said: “The City is currently in the process of finalising further investigations to determine the cause and any remedial action required at the rear of the property. City officers have engaged extensively with the owner over several months regarding this claim”.