Chris Brameld announces candidacy for Toowoomba Regional Council 2024 election

A longstanding Toowoomba police officer, who spent more than half of his life putting his body on the line for the community, now plans to take that service a step further by running for a seat on the Toowoomba Regional Council. Here’s what he will be fighting for.

A Crow’s Nest man who put his life on the line to protect the community now hopes to take that service a step further by fighting for their future, their children’s future, and the prosperity of the Toowoomba region.

Queensland police officer and newly announced Toowoomba Regional councillor candidate, Chris Brameld, said he had always been interested in serving the community through local government, however he only now had the opportunity to do so.

“I have considered this for a while and felt now was the right time,” he said.

“I just want to make sure the community and the lifestyle we have can be maintained along with the growth we are experiencing.”

Chris Brameld has decided to run for the next Toowoomba Regional Council 2024 elections as a councillor.

The father of four said now most of his children had left school, and he was no longer doing shift work, he had the opportunity to fight for community issues he was passionate about – like water security and infrastructure.

“I see the two main areas of concern for our council area as water and infrastructure keeping up with growth,” he said.

“I’m obviously concerned that they’ve been a bit slow, so I want to get involved and make sure we can get plans put in place as soon as possible to start managing it.

“(Especially) with the influx of people into our area – we still have the same water storage capacity.”

He said improving infrastructure across the region was imperative given the booming population rate.

“We need to ensure that our infrastructure can handle (the growth), rather than being reactive and responding to things as they break or are unable to cope due to the increased demand,” he said.

“We’re going to be using more water, we’ve already been in drought with the previous population and had water restrictions so how on earth are we going to cope if we don’t have the ability to store more water?”

Mr Brameld said he was disappointed with previous decisions, such as the pipeline from Wivenhoe to Cooby, given if the Toowoomba region was experiencing drought, so too would the Brisbane region.

“I feel we need to look at either increasing the current dams’ storage capacity or build more dams,” he said.

“I was enthused to see the Emu Creek dam raised as well as increasing Cressbrook dam’s capacity. however (I do) question why this has only just happened in the last three months of a four-year tenure.”

The family man said if elected, he planned to continue his work at the Toowoomba Police Station’s Vulnerable Persons Unit, which works closely with victims of domestic and family violence and other vulnerable people.

The 46-year-old, who spent about half his life on the frontline of the QPS, said his time with the force would enable him to stand up for the community and not back down when things got tough.

“Over the years I’ve been involved in many robust discussions with people, whether it be those in the community or supervisors with the QPS, and so I’m certainly more than willing to be able to have a robust discussion with councillors when it comes to making decisions,” he said.

“Also, having worked in the community, talking to people, and asking questions to get to the heart of issues … I can then take that back to the meetings.”

Mr Brameld, who will be running as an independent candidate, said he was confident if elected he would be able to keep his work and political life separate, noting policies were in place to outline how to manage both roles.

“I am confident I can meet those requirements,” he said.

“I have lived in this fabulous community for the last 22 years and feel I can offer even more to the community as a councillor.”

When Mr Brameld had his boots on the ground, he worked as a police officer at the following stations; Toowoomba, Highfields, Goombungee, Mt Isa, and Logan.