Toowoomba councillor Carol Taylor says she’s received death threats over unformed road debate

In one of the most contentious local government issues in years, a councillor says she’s received threats against her over the phone in relation to her stance on whether the council should upgrade unformed roads.

Councillor Carol Taylor.

A Toowoomba councillor says she has received phone threats over the ongoing unformed roads debate that has been raging within the organisation for weeks.

Councillor Carol Taylor unsuccessfully tried to move a new motion at Tuesday’s ordinary meeting to shape the council’s approach to requests from residents to have unformed roads upgraded.

It comes just two weeks after residents on Oestreich Road in Wellcamp asked council to improve their road reserve, with months of heavy rain turning it into a four-wheel-drive track.

Estimates put the cost of upgrading all 1500km of unformed roads in the region at between $300m and $600m.

The issue has highlighted flaws in the council’s planning scheme, which has allowed the building of houses on roads that have never been maintained.

Most councillors voted last week to defer the whole issue after being dissatisfied with officer recommendations, which suggested installing signage, suggesting residents pay half of the road upgrade and changes to the planning scheme.

But Ms Taylor, who opposed the deferral, said the situation had deteriorated to the point where she had received “threats” against her.

“I’ve had threats over the past week about this, with complete misunderstanding of what council’s responsibilities are in this,” she said.

“These roads have never been registered as a road or formed as a road by our council or previous councils.”

Ms Taylor told The Chronicle she’d referred the threats to the council’s legal team.

The former deputy mayor revealed in 2020 that she’d received death threats in the past over flood resilience works.